Jimmy Fallon Mocks House Lawmakers as Republicans Fail to Find a New Speaker

As Republicans persisted in their lengthy endeavor to select a new speaker, Jimmy Fallon made an incredibly honest zinger at House members. In an internal vote on October 13, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) emerged victorious in the party’s nomination contest. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) had withdrawn from the contest, arguing resistance from several Republican colleagues, HuffPost reported.

Jordan currently lacks the votes necessary to formally win the gavel in a House floor vote. As the standoff persists, several members from both parties have talked about searching for a bipartisan way ahead. “Republicans and Democrats are talking about a bipartisan solution to finding a speaker,” Fallon quipped on The Tonight Show on October 17. “That’s how crazy things have gotten: Our government is so dysfunctional it might become functional.” Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., sought to remove Speaker Kevin McCarthy last week, and he received a majority vote when eight Republicans and all Democrats were against McCarthy.

This set off the current speaker situation. Following McCarthy’s removal last week, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was named temporary speaker but has little to no authority. Even though Republicans nominated Scalise of Louisiana to succeed McCarthy as speaker, he gave up on becoming the next speaker after failing to get enough support in his caucus. Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio then defeated Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia in a closed-door vote to become the second Republican nominee for House speaker this week, but even he does not have enough votes.

Jimmy Fallon is among many comedians who have previously slammed Kevin McCarthy. Fallon, in a recent monologue on his October 3 episode, quipped, “Nine months. Even Aaron Rodgers was like, ‘damn, that was fast,'” Fallon joked after McCarthy could only complete about 9 months as the House Speaker. “Nine months, I’ve been to Phish concerts longer than that.”

Democrats are supporting New Yorker Hakeem Jeffries, the minority leader in the House. After Jordan was selected by Republicans to be the new speaker, Jeffries angrily criticized him. Jeffries described Jordan as “the chairman of the chaos caucus, a defender in a dangerous way of dysfunction, and an extremist extraordinaire.”

Jeffries slammed Republicans as being the reason behind this whole delay and chaos around a Speaker selection. “House Republicans now have a choice,” he said. “On the one hand, House Republicans continue to triple down on the chaos, the dysfunction, and the extremism that has been visited upon the American people as a result of the House Republicans’ civil war. On the other hand, traditional Republicans can break away from the extremism, partner with Democrats on an enlightened bipartisan path forward so we can end the recklessness and get back to doing the business of the American people,” he explained.