Jim Jordan is the 'best person to keep conservative media off our backs': GOP lawmaker

Rep. Kelly Armstrong (R-ND), who nominated House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) for speaker of the House of Representatives, has a message for the remaining Republicans unwilling to vote for him: he's the only person who can stop right-wing, pro-Trump media from continually crucifying their House majority.

This comes as The Washington Postreports that Armstrong is calling up members of Congress and trying to persuade the holdouts that are still left.

“He’s the best person to keep us out of a government shutdown and the best person to keep conservative media off our backs as we face a shutdown,” said Armstrong — an acknowledgement of the fact that far-right news outlets were part of the incentive structure that led Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and his band of renegade Republicans to vote to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) from the speakership and cause all this chaos in the first place.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

Jordan was one of the initial candidates considered for speaker after McCarthy bowed out of running to restore his position, when former President Donald Trump endorsed him. Initially the GOP nominated House Majority Leaders Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Jordan threw his support behind the Scalise nomination. However, just a day later, Scalise withdrew as it became clear there were too many Republicans opposed to the nomination for it to move forward, putting Jordan back in consideration.

One of the key sticking points for Jordan is his prior vow to cut off funding to Ukraine, despite most of the Republican caucus still supporting that military assistance. In recent days, he has tried to walk that pledge back.

With an extremely narrow House majority, Republicans can only lose four members in a speaker vote. As of this weekend, roughly 20 House Republicans were opposed to Jordan's candidacy. Jordan has since managed to win over some of those holdouts, like Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), but according to the Post, there could still be up to a dozen defectors on the first vote, setting up multiple ballots and policy negotiations.