Jim Jordan reveals what the House would look like with him as speaker

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) began his bid for House speaker on Tuesday, hoping to replace Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who was ousted in an unprecedented vote this week.

The Ohio Republican painted a picture of what a Jordan speakership would look like, outlining his plan to avoid a government shutdown, resolving disputes within his conference, what policies he would focus on, and where the multiple investigations would stand if he departed from the chairman role.

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On avoiding a government shutdown

McCarthy worked with Democrats in the House to pass a measure to extend government funding for 45 days last week. Jordan was one of 90 Republicans who opposed the stopgap measure, explaining what he would do differently to avoid a government shutdown.

“I think the first thing you do is you pass the bipartisan bill that’s in the Senate,” Jordan said on Thursday, speaking on Fox & Friends. “We take that bill up here in the House and we pass it. It’s no shutdown act.”

Jordan referred to the bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. James Lankford (R-OK) and Maggie Hassan (D-NH), the Prevent Government Shutdowns Act, requiring all members of Congress to continue working if appropriations are not passed on time. If funds do run out, an automatic continuing resolution would be enacted on rolling 14-day periods.

“That would take this whole shutdown politics, shutdown scenario, shutdown stuff off the table,” Jordan said. “You do that and then you focus on the legislation, and frankly, if we need some kind of continuing resolution or some stopgap measure, I think it should go all the way in the next year.”

“The way the debt ceiling deal was done, if you do a spending bill into the next year, there’s an automatic cut that kicks in, and that’s an incentive for us to get our work done and focus on the policies we want on the 12 appropriation bills,” Jordan said about his strategy.

On bringing the Republican Party together

Monthslong intraparty disputes between hard-line conservatives and centrist Republicans boiled over when a group of eight House Republicans joined with Democrats to remove McCarthy. As House speaker, Jordan would inherit the infighting within the conference and addressed his plan to create unity among Republicans and bring the focus back to passing legislation.

“Any differences that exist in the Republican Party pale, pale in comparison to the differences between us and the radical Left, which now unfortunately controls the Democrat Party,” Jordan said. “We had better stick together. We had better come together to fight for the things that make our country the greatest nation ever and the things the American people elected us to do again.”

A growing number of centrist Republicans are pushing for House rules to change so that a single member can’t force a vote on removing the speaker. The motion to vacate, which is the procedural tool that was used to remove McCarthy, currently allows for any one member, Democrat or Republican, to introduce the motion that must be taken to the floor. Democrats changed the rules in 2019 before McCarthy and Republicans reversed it in January.

Jordan said if a rule change is what the majority of the Republican conference wants, that’s a move that will have to be made together.

“If the conference wants that rule changed — if I’m speaker, I’m not going to go to Democrats and get that done, no way,” Jordan said. “We will have to decide as 222 Republicans.”

On key legislation 

Jordan said the first piece of legislation he would focus on would be an immigration bill.

“The first thing I would focus on, the very first thing I would focus on is one sentence: No money can be used to process or release into this country any new migrants. You have to change the equation. You have to stop what’s going on there in Texas and across our country,” Jordan said, pushing to attach it to a spending bill.

Jordan repeated his stance, opposing more aid for Ukraine’s defensive war against Russia. The bipartisan short-term funding bill passed by Congress this weekend dropped a $6 billion request for aid.

“I’ve been clear all along. Why should we be sending American tax dollars to Ukraine when we don’t even know what the goal is?” Jordan said. “No one can tell me what the objective is. Is it some kind of negotiated peace? Is it driving them out of eastern Ukraine? Is it driving them out of Crimea, which they’ve had for 10 years now, that they took during the Obama administration? What is the objective?”

Jordan said his other focus is determining how the money has been spent, which is about $75 billion in assistance to Ukraine.

“Particularly, you send money there to protect Ukraine’s border where we got the situation we have on our border,” Jordan said.

On continuing investigations into Biden

Jordan, who also sits on the select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, has led investigations into the alleged Biden administration weaponization of the Justice Department. The Ohio Republican has worked alongside House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) for months, investigating Hunter Biden’s position on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, while Biden was vice president.

“They sure will,” Jordan said when asked if the investigation into the Biden family will advance if he’s elected speaker. “We’ve been working with the speaker’s office all along. Many times, you have to consult House counsel when you’re doing all these depositions, all these subpoenas that get sent out. So, we’ve had that already happen.”

Jordan is one of former President Donald Trump’s most vocal defenders, investigating state prosecutors who are involved with criminal cases against the former president.

“If, in fact, I get the privilege of being the next speaker of the House, we will continue to work with the team on Judiciary and Oversight and Ways and Means as we do our investigative work, as we do our constitutional duty of oversight of the executive branch. That will continue.”

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As of Thursday, Jordan has received endorsements from members of the Ohio delegation including Reps. Mike Carey (R-OH), Mike Turner (R-OH), and Warren Davidson (R-OH).

Jordan launched his run for speaker the same day as House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA). The Republicans were the first two candidates to announce bids to replace McCarthy after his historic ouster on Tuesday. Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK) is also being floated as a successor.