Representative Ken Buck (R-CO) said Tuesday on CNN’s “News Central” that he would never vote for Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) to become House Speaker.
Co-anchor Dana Bash said, “Let’s look at what’s next. I should just say for our viewers know that you were one of the eight who voted to vacate and to kick Kevin McCarthy out of the speaker’s chair. You just heard Congressman Gimenez talking to Jake, saying that he does want McCarthy back. Is there any chance that you will have a change of heart?”
Buck said, “I’m not going to vote for Kevin McCarthy. As Carlos also said, we have 220 members 221 members. We’re going to find somebody to agree to and move forward, even if it’s for a temporary basis. But we will find somebody so that we can get our work done.”
Bask asked, “What happens now?”
Buck said, “Yeah, well, right now, folks are going to go into conference. There’s going to be a lot of yelling and screaming. I will go into conference after their nerves settle down a little bit. And I think we get — we come up with either the 30-day plan or Jim wants to go back to the floor for a second vote. If we get a second vote, Jim is going to lose some votes that he got on the first vote, and he’s going to gain some votes. But I anticipate that the vote will still be in that 15 to 25 range.”
He continued, “There’s a group of people, really widespread across the conference, that do not want to see Jim Jordan as speaker.”
He added, “I think what Jim Jordan needs to do is stop talking about defunding the Department of Justice. We pride ourselves on being a party of rule of law. You can’t defund the Department of Justice or defund a special council’s office in the Department of Justice and talk about the values that we share. Also, there are a number of different issues related to the election and some not related to the election.”
Bash said, “You are a hard no. I mean, is there anything he can do, anything that he can promise, any change that he can make to get your vote?”
Buck said, “I will not vote for Jim Jordan.”
Bash said, “No way, OK.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
