Do you want Ohio Congressman Jim Jordan to be third in line to the presidency of the United States?
That’s a question which should send chills down the spine of every American — and give Republican Congress Members of New York pause as they head to the House Tuesday to try (yet again) to elect a new Speaker.
We especially wonder if Congress Members Nick LaLota, Anthony D’Esposito, Marc Molinaro and Mike Lawler — all of whom represent districts President Biden won handily in 2020 — would be comfortable with a right-wing, anti-democracy extremist like Jim Jordan being the Speaker of the House, the third-highest elected office in America.
We wonder the same for Congress Member Nicole Malliotakis, another Republican representing Brooklyn and Staten Island, if she’d be comfortable giving her Speaker vote to a man who would move to oppose new funding for Ukraine in its ongoing battle with Russia.
We wonder if each of them finally had enough of the extremist MAGA hijinks from the likes of Jordan, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Matt Gaetz, the Florida representative who initiated the vote that led to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic removal from office earlier this month.
We wonder if they are concerned that the vast majority of moderate voters in their district would be offended if they sided with an empty, yet dangerous suit like Jim Jordan, who propagated the election lies that culminated in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol insurrection; misused his own power as a House representative to intimidate those investigating Donald Trump; and hasn’t passed a single bill into law since first being elected to the House 16 years ago.
The prospect of Jim Jordan being Speaker of the House is truly terrifying for reasons beyond the legislative.
Should Biden be re-elected president in 2024, will Jordan try to interfere in the certification of his election like he did in 2020? The Speaker of the House is the third person in line for the presidency. God forbid a tragedy strikes, Jim Jordan would be a heartbeat from the presidency.
If that isn’t scary, check your pulse.
It’s not certain whether Jordan will have enough Republican votes to get a majority and win the speakership. What is certain is that all it would take is for five Republicans to vote for House Democratic Leader (and Brooklyn Congress Member) Hakeem Jeffries to make him speaker.
And New York has five Republicans who can make the difference between a law-abiding, consensus-seeking, rule-of-law-respecting Speaker Hakeem Jeffries and a hyperpartisan, anarchic, anti-democratic Speaker Jim Jordan. The choice ought to be obvious but we’ll say it anyway.
Congress Members D’Esposito, LaLota, Lawler, Malliotakis and Molinaro: Vote your conscience, not for Jim Jordan!
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