Jean-Pierre’s Remarks on House Speaker Election

Jean-Pierre’s remarks arrived on a day where Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) bowed out of his bid to become House speaker after party members nominated him to hold the post in a closed-door vote.

“I mean look it’s their process to run, they are – this is the House Republicans as I’ve said over and over again, it is their process, the president doesn’t have a vote,” Jean-Pierre told reporters on Thursday.

“It is – what we’re seeing is certainly shambolic chaos that we’re seeing over there on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue, and they need to get their act together. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done on behalf of the American people.”

Scalise beat Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) by a vote of 113 to 99 in a closed-door election among House Republicans earlier this week but with members of his conference opposing his candidacy to be speaker, it appeared Scalise would struggle to reach the 217 votes needed from 221 Republicans in a vote on the House floor.

Jean-Pierre, who previously dismissed the idea that the White House is “loving” Republicans not being able to govern, added that the House GOP majority needs to “figure this out” and it’s “up to them” on how they want to select a speaker.

“We’ve never seen a conference behave this way or be this chaotic,” she said.

“And, you know, it is important for Republicans who have the majority to figure this out – to figure this out and get their – and, and get the – they created the situation, and they have to figure it out and elect their speaker so we can move on.”