Jordan-Gaetz Feud Spills onto House Floor

 

Disarray rocked the House majority yesterday during an otherwise productive session of Congress when one Republican House member sought the expulsion of a colleague.

The ruckus began with a vote on HR 51, a bill to ratify the Ottawa Treaty on land mines. A bipartisan majority on the floor favored amending the bill to include lifting the trade embargo with Cuba. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Arizona) joined conservative Republicans like Don Bacon (Nebraska) in describing the Cuban embargo as an arcane and failed policy. Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) joined 21 other House members in voting to lift the embargo. (The bill passed and was later signed into law by President Biden.)

Ceremonial Mace

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), however, described lifting the embargo as a grave error, calling it a vital tool for stopping the communist regime in Cuba. After the vote, Jordan appeared to call out Gaetz, saying, "I would just like to remind my fellow Republican Congressman from Florida that their Cuban American voters are not going to be happy if they see that you're betraying them by endorsing the Communist regime which they risked their lives to flee."

Toward the end of the floor session, Rep. Gaetz grabbed the House ceremonial mace from the Sergeant at Arms and spoke out of turn on the floor, demanding a vote on Jordan's expulsion. The Speaker decided to allow the vote.

Ultimately the vote failed when nearly all Democrats voted "present." Only five House members, including two Republicans, voted in favor of the measure. It requires two-thirds of the chamber to expel a member.

In a statement later made available to the Sentinel, Jordan said, "I expect Representative Gaetz will be hard-pressed next election cycle to explain to his constituents not only why he voted for a bill which contravenes decades of Republican doctrine in support of an authoritarian one-party Marxist-Leninist regime, but also why he tried to censure one of the House's most outspoken conservative voices and weaken our Party's narrow majority." Jordan additionally demanded an apology from all Republicans who failed to vote against the measure.

In other floor news, a bipartisan majority voted to override President Biden's veto of an audit of the Federal Reserve. Biden was reportedly stunned and pensive after learning of this.