CNN’s Jake Tapper Asks House Republican ‘Do You Guys Have Any Idea How Clownish You Look?’

With Republicans unable to elect a Speaker of the House, CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Rep. Mike Turner if he believed his party would be able to resolve its differences so that Congress could get back to work. “I hope you don’t take this personally,” Tapper said, “but do you guys have any idea how clownish you look?”

“Hopefully we’ll get past this,” Turner said, comparing Congress to high school. He said he hoped that “those on the fringes hopefully coming together” so Republicans can unify behind a speaker.

Tapper reflected that he’d made the Congress-is-like-high school comparison in a conversation with another member of Congress last week, only to have that representative say “that’s an insult to high school students,” that Congress “is more like junior high.”

After Rep. Jim Jordan failed on a third vote to generate enough votes to become speaker, several Republicans have announced they will run for the job, including Rep. Tom Emmer, Rep. Austin Scott, Rep. Byron Donalds, Rep. Kevin Hern and Rep. Pete Sessions.

The turmoil in the House of Representatives began when a small group of Republicans unseated House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, forcing the divided Republican caucus to try and identify a candidate capable of generating the 217 votes required to take the job.

“I’ve heard it said in our conference that Jesus can’t get to 217,” said Rep. Thomas Massie. “And I’ve also heard it said that nobody can get to 217.”

The vacancy in the speaker’s office comes as Congress faces a November 17 deadline for deciding how to fund the government, and the Biden Administration’s request for funding Ukraine and Israel.