Jane Coaston interviews Rep. Don Bacon about why Republicans keep knocking out their own leaders and how a few populists are grinding the House to a halt.
Nearly 200 G.O.P. lawmakers have supported Representative Jim Jordan, the hard-right Ohio lawmaker, in the speaker fight. Some Republicans say that may doom the party in coming elections.
Twenty Republicans refused to support the hard-right Ohio Republican, leaving him without a majority as the party infighting stretched into a third week.
Right-wing Republicans who represent a minority in their party and in Congress have succeeded in sowing mass dysfunction, spoiling for a shutdown, an impeachment and a House coup.