Good morning, US politics blog readers. Will today be the day Republicans get it together and elect a new speaker of the House of Representatives? All that can be said for sure is that lawmakers will convene at 11am eastern time and cast ballots for the second day straight, and staunch conservative Jim Jordan will try to claim the 217 votes he needs to win the gavel. Other than that, it’s all up in the air. Yesterday, 20 GOP lawmakers said no to Jordan, including moderates representing swing districts. That’s a big number, and it’s unclear if Jordan has managed to change minds in the hours since that vote was held.
If Jordan is rejected again in today’s vote, it will up the pressure on the GOP to find someone else to fill the chair that Kevin McCarthy was forced out of two weeks ago by rightwing insurgents and Democratic acquiescence. But who? This morning, Punchbowl News reported that Republican congressman David Joyce will file a motion to give acting speaker Patrick McHenry full powers. We’ll see if that goes anywhere.
Here’s what else is happening today:
Joe Biden is in Israel, where he said a deadly hospital blast yesterday was “done by the other team”. Follow our live blog for more on this.
Donald Trump yesterday said he would appeal the limited gag order a federal judge imposed on him earlier this week in the election subversion case.
New polling from the University of Virginia finds significant shares of Americans interested in radical political ideas such as states seceding from the union and alternatives to democracy.