Republicans Are Blocking Each Other Online Amid Jim Jordan Speaker Chaos

The GOP infighting resulting from the inability of the conference to galvanize and choose the next House speaker has led to death threats against some members and even social media attacks.

Congressman Jim Jordan has attempted and thus far failed to claim the gavel this week following two failed votes on the floor of the House of Representatives, losing more votes on the second roll call than the initial one. The Ohio Republican has vied for the job since he and House Republicans and Democrats vacated Kevin McCarthy on October 3.

Patrick McHenry, the speaker pro tempore, has been in control for over two weeks. Jordan spoke to the press on Friday morning ahead of a third bid for the speakership, though many questions remain as to how the Ohio legislator will successfully surpass the 217-vote threshold necessary when he seemingly hasn't mustered additional support.

On Friday, Representative Nancy Mace said that fellow Republican Representative Greg Murphy "blocked" her on X (formerly Twitter) after he wrote a post addressed to her, wondering when she would "apologize for causing this mess."

Mace was among those who voted to vacate McCarthy.

"If you want to vote against the people who elected you that's on you @RepGregMurphy, but I'm gonna stand with them, not Washington," Mace wrote back.

She also claimed that Murphy blocked her, using an emoji of a cat intended to call the congressman a derogatory term.

A spokesperson for Mace confirmed to Newsweek that Murphy blocked her on X.

"The American people want a speaker who will be honest and represent them, not business as usual in Washington," Mace told Newsweek. "It is disgraceful for a number of elected officials, many of them in safe GOP districts, to oppose Jim Jordan purely to spite those of us who took a principled stand.

"Voting against the will of your constituents to get back at fellow members is the definition of the swamp. We hope the American people see who is standing with them and who is standing with Washington."

"The internal debates are a distraction from the issues Americans care about and President Biden is failing to address," Murphy told Newsweek via email. "I regret the chaos we have been plunged into, but I guess the cameras and media attention were just too enticing to pass up for some of the perpetrators.

"Threats against members for their votes is unacceptable and disheartening. Jim Jordan would make a great speaker, but if the votes aren't there, they aren't there. We have a deep bench such as Representatives Kevin Hern or Mike Johnson, patriots who are well-equipped to do the job."

Grant Reeher, political science professor at Syracuse University, told Newsweek via phone that the present situation is a manifestation of something that's been taking place within the Republican Party for a very long time, dating back to former Speaker John Boehner.

"For lack of a better term, you've got this fringy group on the right that are very intransigent, and when you look back and they've been intransigent they have gotten what they want," Reeher said. "So, they look at it as leverage."

The tactics are not new but have become more aggressive over the years, he added, calling it unsurprising in many respects as "some are zealots" and legislative disagreements are viewed by some as less important than a broader ideology.

Politically, however, this present infighting could have negative repercussions for the party as a whole come the 2024 elections. Reeher said he doesn't think history will look kindly at the situation based on threats to national security and wars in Israel and Ukraine requiring domestic input.

"We're seeing the ultimate manifestation of that dynamic and I don't think Republican leadership has been able to figure it out," he added.

Republican Representative Don Bacon, who was called a dumba** by Fox News' Brian Kilmeade for voting against Jordan, told The Hill on Thursday that his wife slept with a loaded gun following threats made to the family due to rejecting Jordan.

Bacon told reporters the previous day that a minority of Republicans who ousted McCarthy, including Jordan and eight other lawmakers, and are attempting to overtake the majority now likely understand how McCarthy felt.

"His supporters dethroned Kevin McCarthy as speaker with eight people, and we have a four-seat majority," Bacon said of Jordan, according to the Nebraska Examiner. "Then when we voted for Steve Scalise...five of the Jordan guys...said they would only support Jim Jordan."

"You can't have a minority of the majority run the House, and that's what's going on," he added.

Newsweek reached out to Bacon via email for comment.

George Representative Drew Ferguson, also a Republican, also said he has received death threats for voting against Jordan. He actually voted for Jordan on the first ballot but changed his vote to Representative Steve Scalise on the second go-around based on "pressure campaigns and attacks."

He said he would not be "bullied" into voting for someone.

"Shortly after casting that vote [for Scalise], my family and I started receiving death-threats," Ferguson said in a statement. "That is simply unacceptable, unforgivable and will never be tolerated."

Some Republicans, like Tom Tiffany, have embraced the chaos and called it "the good part" of the party as Democrats vote in "lockstep" for their own.

Update 10/20/23, 2:04 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from Representative Greg Murphy.