Cheney amps up Jordan criticism: GOP will lose House and ‘deserve’ it

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) doubled down Friday on her criticism of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), saying if he becomes Speaker, Republicans will lose control of the House in the next election — and rightly so.

“If Rs nominate Jordan to be Speaker, they will be abandoning the Constitution. They’ll lose the House majority and they’ll deserve to,” Cheney wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

Cheney reiterated her concern about Jordan’s close relationship with former President Trump and about his involvement in the efforts to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election. 

“Jim Jordan was involved in Trump’s conspiracy to steal the election and seize power,” she wrote. “He urged that Pence refuse to count lawful electoral votes.”

Jordan reentered the race for Speaker Friday after losing the GOP nomination to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) in a Tuesday vote of 113-99. Scalise dropped out Thursday night after he was unable to get enough support from members of his conference. 

Later Friday, Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott also threw his hat into the Speaker race, saying he wants “to lead a House that functions in the best interest of the American people.”

In a speech last week, Cheney said she did not expect Jordan would get the votes to become Speaker, but, if he did, there would “no longer be any possible way to argue that a group of elected Republicans could defend against the Constitution.”

“Jim Jordan knew more about what Donald Trump had planned for Jan. 6 than any other member of the House of Representatives,” she said in the speech last week. “Jim Jordan was involved, was part of the conspiracy in which Donald Trump was engaged as he attempted to overturn the election.”

Cheney, as vice chair of the Jan. 6 select committee, published a report with the committee that described Jordan as a “significant player” in Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the election. The report said the Ohio Republican “participated in numerous post-election meetings” to discuss strategies for overturning the election results, including a Jan. 2, 2021, call with Trump and others to discuss plans “for delaying the January 6th joint session.” 

According to the report, Jordan also sent a text on Jan. 5, 2021, to then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows saying he was “passing along advice that Vice President [Mike] Pence should ‘call out all the electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.'”