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On Thursday, CNN’s Jake Tapper aired a threatening voicemail message that was reportedly sent to the spouse of a Republican House member who opposes GOP Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid for House speaker.
Jordan’s speaker hopes are cooked at this point, given the many holdouts who insist they’ll never vote for him. But he’s stayed resolute in seeking the nomination. Evidently a glutton for punishment, Jordan lost a third House vote on Friday. He later lost a secret ballot among Republicans, who are headed home for the weekend, and he seems no longer to be in the running for the spot.
As my colleague Steve Benen explained for the Maddowblog, Jordan and his allies seem to have miscalculated in backing a right-wing pressure campaign, promoted by conservative media, that’s encouraged people to call lawmakers who have opposed his speaker bid.
Some House members have reported receiving death threats and have said they’ve hired additional security to protect themselves and their families, which only appears to have made them more determined to oppose Jordan’s elevation.
Citing sources in the room at a tense House GOP caucus meeting, Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman reported Friday that Ohio Republican Warren Davidson said the Congress members receiving threats have no one to blame but themselves. (I suspect this won’t win Jordan many converts, either.)
The message Tapper shared on Thursday gives a taste of the depravity some of Jordan’s backers have displayed in trying to flip his detractors.
In the profanity-laced message, the caller suggests the lawmaker is a part of the “deep state” for opposing Jordan’s speakership. The caller goes on to say that they and other backers of Jordan are “gonna f------ come follow you all over the place.” The rant continues, and the caller uses an anti-gay slur before ramping up the threatening rhetoric.
At the risk of sounding like Rep. Davidson, whose tactics to coerce Jordan’s opposition seem positively mafia-esque, I think Republicans do deserve a degree of blame for the intimidation they’re facing (which is not to say that such tactics are excusable).
You may remember that in February 2022, the Republican National Committee chose to censure two Republican lawmakers — former Reps. Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger — for their efforts to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection. In the official resolution, the party officials denounced the "persecution" of “legitimate political discourse,” essentially affirming to conservatives that menacing members of Congress — threatening them with violence, even — is an acceptable way to influence them. (Officials denied that that part of the resolution referred to Jan. 6, but the resolution itself was ambiguous.)
Which is to say, the current members of the House Republican Caucus are simply being consistent with the party's decision to officially condone, if not encourage, political intimidation and violence. Jim Jordan’s opponents just don’t like that these tactics are being deployed against them.
But according to their party, that's part and parcel of being a U.S. lawmaker.