October 6, 2023: Trump jolts speakership race

The Playbook Podcast

POLITICO

News, Daily News, Politics, Government

3.9 • 699 Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2023

⏱️ 7 minutes

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Summary

Late Thursday night, former President Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Jim Jordan’s bid to become speaker of the House — ending far-fetched speculation about a possible Trump run while dousing the campaign to succeed Kevin McCarthy with rocket fuel. Until that moment, it was unclear how the former president would approach the vacancy. Trump had previously mentioned that he was planning a visit to Capitol Hill to attempt to unite the party, and hinted at running for the position himself. But when Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas) posted to X that he had spoken to Trump about his decision to endorse Jordan rather than run, it changed the entire trajectory of the race. National political reporter Meridith McGraw talks Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza through the situation. Playbook co-author Ryan Lizza interviews National political reporter Meridith McGraw.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Good morning, everyone. I'm Playbook co-author, Ryan Lizza.
0:08.2	It's Friday, October 6th. Here's what's driving the day. Two big things. One about Joe Biden.
0:14.4	One about Donald Trump. Biden is building a wall on the U.S.-Mexican border. On Thursday,
0:20.6	the administration announced this
0:22.6	in the quietest way possible, with a few lines in the Federal Register that noted, quote,
0:28.3	there is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers. By midday Thursday,
0:34.1	questions about Biden's about face on this issue dominated the White House
0:38.2	press briefing. The administration's explanation, they tried and failed to get Congress to
0:43.1	reappropriate the money for other immigration priorities, and now, by law, they have to spend
0:49.0	it on Trump's wall. The Biden administration is walking a fine line here. On the one hand,
0:54.1	Biden is saying he's still against the wall.
0:56.0	On the other hand, they did have this leftover money that had to be spent on the wall. But the timing is, of course, pretty curious considering immigration. And the situation at the U.S.-Mexican border is one of the major vulnerabilities for Joe Biden right now, and he's going into a
1:12.6	negotiating season with Republicans in the House and Senate, who seem to be steering towards
1:17.2	some kind of deal on Ukraine aid and immigration funding. So it seems like the White House decided
1:24.0	this was a good time to spend that money. And perhaps not surprisingly, Donald Trump
1:29.3	is inserting himself into the House GOP's leadership race. Trump told Fox News yesterday that he was
1:35.3	planning a trip to Washington to meet with Republican House members on Tuesday. That's when
1:40.0	speaker candidates are scheduled to make their case before the entire House GOP conference.
1:45.7	Hours later, Representative Troy Nels from Texas, who wanted Trump to run for Speaker,
1:52.2	tweeted that Trump told him that the former president would actually endorse Jim Jordan instead.
1:58.3	And Trump later confirmed his endorsement of Jordan. So what sort of mischief is Trump up to?
2:05.1	To answer that, we're going to turn to Politico's national political correspondent, Meredith McGraw.
	...

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