Ken Buck Says He Refused To Vote For GOP Speaker Candidates Due To 2020 Election Lies
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WASHINGTON — Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) says he refused to vote for either of the Republican candidates for House speaker on Wednesday because they both dodged his question about the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
Buck asked Reps. Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) whether President Joe Biden won the 2020 election fair and square, and he said neither man gave a straight answer during a Republican speaker candidate forum Tuesday evening.
So when House Republicans held a closed-door election to decide their next nominee for speaker on Wednesday, Buck said he simply voted “present.”
“If we don’t have the moral clarity to decide whether President Biden won or not, we don’t have the moral clarity to rule in this country, period,” Buck told HuffPost.
“They weren’t direct. They evaded the question,” Buck said. “I wasn’t happy, so I voted ‘present.’”
The House has been leaderless since a far-right faction led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) ousted Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from the speaker’s office last week. Buck was one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy after he prevented a government shutdown by moving legislation with Democratic votes.
Scalise wound up winning a majority of Republicans in Wednesday’s vote, with 113 in support compared to 99 for Jordan. It’s still unclear if Scalise can consolidate his support in a vote on the House floor in order to actually become speaker.
Jordan and Scalise were among the 147 Republicans who voted to object to the 2020 election results on Jan. 6, 2021, even after a violent mob of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol as part of Trump’s multifaceted scheme to undo his loss. Buck spoke out against objecting to the election result.
Jordan was a major promoter of Trump’s lies about the election, and as chairman of the House judiciary committee, he’s defended Trump from the various criminal investigations into his conduct during and after his time in office. The false idea that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump, and that the Justice Department has been “weaponized” against him, has formed the centerpiece of Trump’s campaign to retake the White House in 2024.
Jordan has also helped lead the effort to impeach Biden, an enterprise that Buck has said lacks all merit.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) confirmed Buck’s account of asking about the 2020 election and not getting a straight answer.
“I’d say that’d be very accurate,” he said.
