What was clear was that Jordan's path to become House speaker was almost certainly lost. He was opposed by 22 Republicans, two more than he lost in first-round voting the day before. Many view the Ohio congressman as too extreme for a central seat of U.S. power and resented the harassing hardball tactics from Jordan's allies for their votes. One lawmaker said they had received death threats.

"We’ll keep talking to members, keep working on it,” Jordan, a founding member of the hard-right Freedom Caucus, said after the vote.

The House came to another abrupt standstill, stuck now 15 days since the sudden ouster of Kevin McCarthy without a speaker — a position of power second in line to the presidency. (snip)

As Republicans upset and exhausted by the infighting retreated for private conversations, hundreds of demonstrators amassed outside the Capitol over the Israel-Hamas war, a stark reminder of the concern over having the House adrift as political challenges intensify at home and abroad.

“The way out is that Jim Jordan has got to pull his name," said Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who voted twice against him. “He’s going to have to call it quits.”

Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) cited how his staff had been “cussed out, they’ve been threatened. It’s been nonstop. Most of them are out-of-state calls.”

“It’s a matter of how you treat people,” Womack said, as The Washington Post’s Jacqueline Alemany reported. “And frankly, based on what I’ve been through and what my staff has been through, it’s obvious what the strategy is: attack, attack, attack.”

Womack added that Jordan’s “tactics” had badly backfired.

Another holdout, Rep. Kay Granger (R-Tex.), posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, “Intimidation and threats will not change my position.”

A third, Rep. Jen A. Kiggans (R-Va.), echoed that same message on X: “I was a helicopter pilot in the United States Navy … threats and intimidation tactics will not change my principles and values.”

A fourth, Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-Fla.), said he brought this up directly with Jordan. “I told him, ‘I don’t really take well to threats,’” Gimenez told NBC News.

A fifth, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), said her decision to switch to voting against Jordan on Wednesday was greeted with “credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls.”

And a sixth, Rep. John Rutherford (R-Fla.), more explicitly laid the blame at Jordan’s feet.

“He’s absolutely responsible for it,” Rutherford told Alemany. “And look, it doesn’t work. … Nobody likes to have their arm twisted.”

However, since my vote in support of Chairwoman Granger, I have received credible death threats and a barrage of threatening calls. The proper authorities have been notified and my office is cooperating fully.

One thing I cannot stomach, or support is a bully.