MISSOULA, Montana- Former Representative of Wyoming Liz Cheney said on Thursday that making Representative Jim Jordan (R-OH-04) the new Speaker of the House is a risk to America’s democracy.
“The notion that the Republican Party is anywhere close to contemplating putting Jim Jordan into the position of Speaker of the House is something that tells you the level of risk we face in our democracy today,” Cheney said in a talk at the University of Montana’s 2023 Mansfield Center Lecture series. Cheney took questions from former Montana Governor Marc Racicot. The Montana GOP passed a resolution in February rebuking Racicot’s status as a Republican due to him endorsing Democratic candidates over GOP ones.
“Jim Jordan is running to be the Speaker of the House. He was deeply involved in Donald Trump’s ‘conspiracy’ to steal the election and participated in all the planning sessions,” Cheney said.
“Being involved in the planning sessions for January 6th means that if anybody really knew what Donald Trump was planning, if anybody had advanced information about the advanced violence of that day, it would have been Jim Jordan,” the now-University of Virginia professor said.
Jordan announced this week that he would seek the Speaker of the House nomination after the House decided to vacate Representative Kevin McCarthy (R-CA-20) from his position by a vote of 216-210. McCarthy said after the vote that he would not seek the speakership position again. It was the first time a House Speaker had been vacated in American history.
“Kevin McCarthy made a fundamentally corrupt bargain to be Speaker of the House. And he made a corrupt bargain that began when we were still in the minority after January 6,” Cheney said. “He ushered Donald Trump back into office, and so there’s no surprise that we have ended up where we did.”
Cheney said she was not surprised that all the Democrats voted to vacate the Speaker of the House position. The former representative said that if she was a Democratic representative with a vote, she would have voted to vacate McCarthy’s position. She did note thought that she would not be a “Democratic” member of the House in the future.
Cheney said it will take some time for Republicans to sort that out. She added that America should have a speaker who respects his or her oath to the Constitution.
Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA-01) and Tom Emmer (R-MN-06) also are seeking the nomination for Speaker of the House.
According to Representative Troy Nehls (R-TX-22), Trump is set to endorse Jordan for the speakership position.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected]. Follow Zachery on Twitter @zacheryschmidt2.
