White House calls on House GOP to join "the adults table"
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
President Biden holds a press conference during a solidarity visit to Israel on Oct. 18. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
The White House on Thursday drew a sharp contrast between President Biden's leadership in Israel this week following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, with the House GOP speaker race chaos.
The big picture: Two GOP speaker nominees — Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) — failed to garner enough support in recent days to unite the fractured conference, causing a stalemate that has paralyzed Congress for more than two weeks.
- Jordan paused his speaker bid Thursday and endorsed empowering Speaker Pro Tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) to be temporary speaker until January.
Driving the news: "They need to get their act together and join this president at the adults table," White House spokesperson Andrew Bates wrote in a memo shared with Axios.
- "President Biden is leading and standing up for our national security interests on the world stage," the statement said, in part.
- "Meanwhile, House Republicans continue their downward spiral into chaos and away from governing," the memo states.
- The House has been without a speaker for more than two weeks after California GOP Rep. Kevin McCarthy's historic ouster.
Zoom in: Bates pointed to a speaker candidate forum last week, in which neither Jordan nor Scalise were "willing to even say outright that the 2020 election ... was legitimate."
- Bates also noted that Jordan has expressed support for cutting programs like Medicare and Social Security to address the national debt, "while simultaneously endorsing deficit-busting tax welfare for the rich and giant corporations."
State of play: With McHenry as a short-term speaker, the House could resume passing key legislation as a Nov. 17 deadline to avert a government shutdown approaches.
Of note: Four House Republicans walked away from conversations with Jordan earlier this week under the impression he would have allowed a floor vote on linking Ukraine funding with Israel funding if he won the gavel, Axios first reported.
- Many hardline House Republicans have been pushing for the U.S. to stop providing funding to Ukraine, while providing military assistance to Israel is broadly popular in Congress
Biden is set to deliver an Oval Office address Thursday evening as he pursues funding for Israel and Ukraine.
Go deeper: GOP erupts in closed-door meeting after House speaker stalemate
