“It’s a very difficult environment and situation here as these Republicans try to figure out who their next leader should be,” CBS congressional correspondent Nikole Killion says.
Far-right Congressman Jim Jordan has backed out of the House speaker race after failing his third attempt to be voted into the position Friday, sending Congress into chaos as billions of dollars in aid is being held up.
Capitol Hill is left scrambling after Republican Jim Jordan yet again did not secure enough votes due to opposition within his own party.
Behind the headlines things got ugly. CNN obtained explicit voicemails that were left for the wife of Republican Congressman Don Bacon, who refused to vote for Rep. Jordan.
“Why is your husband such a pig,” the caller said. “We're going to ******* come follow you all over the place. You’re going to be ******* molested like you can’t ever imagine.”
Congressman Bacon says that his wife now sleeps with a loaded gun.
“In this type of political environment, it seems that nothing is off limits, but it is concerning, particularly because this is really the first time that we have seen these types of threats in a speaker's race. And that just shows how contentious this is,” CBS congressional correspondent Nikole Killion says.
Tensions within the Republican party have grown within its members. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy reportedly screamed at Matt Gaetz, the man who led the effort to oust him, to “sit your *** down,” according to published reports.
“I was at the mic, I was speaking, and Matt Gaetz tried to interrupt and since I told him to sit down, he sat down,” McCarthy said at a press briefing. “The whole country I think would scream at Matt Gaetz right now.”
With the president's request for $60 billion in aid for Israel and Ukraine, the pressure is on Republicans to approve a speaker.
“It’s a very difficult environment and situation here as these Republicans try to figure out who their next leader should be,” Killion says.
