A conservative Republican who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy grilled both of the Republican candidates for speaker about whether Preisdent Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election of the House in a closed-door meeting.

Rep Ken Buck (R-CO), a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told reporters on Wednesday that he grilled Rep Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) about whether the 2020 presidential election was stolen.

Both Mr Jordan and Mr Scalise voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election results on January 6. Mr Buck voted to certify. Mr Buck said it was important to have clarity about such an important topic. Politico first reported Mr Buck’s question on Tuesday evening.

“They weren’t direct, they evaded the question,” Mr Buck told reporters. As a result, Mr Buck said that he voted “present” during the closed-door session to consider Mr Jordan and Mr Scalise.

Eric Garcia reports.

Lawmakers were expected to meet on the floor on Wednesday afternoon before recessing, reported CNN.

Mr Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, was chosen by his GOP colleagues over Ohio lawmaker Jim Jordan to replace Kevin McCarthy, who was kicked out of the job by his party last week.

Mr Scalise will now have to win a floor vote in the House with a majority of the whole chamber to become speaker.

He will require 217 votes to become speaker, meaning he can only lose four GOP votes if all Democrats vote against him.

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Steve Scalise has cleared a major hurdle with today’s behind-the-scenes GOP vote, but that’s not the end of the race for Speaker of the House.

Now, the full House of Representatives will vote on his candidacy.

Republicans have a majority in the House, but only a slim one; to get the necessary 217 votes, Mr Scalise can only lose up to four GOP members.

“I personally cannot, in good conscience, vote for someone who attended a white supremacist conference and compared himself to David Duke,” Rep Nancy Mace told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “I would be doing an enormous disservice to the voters I represent in South Carolina if I were to do that.”

Ms Mace also had this bizarre conversation with Tapper:

Marjorie Taylor Greene has sent out a fundraising email touting that she’s “voting for JIM JORDAN on the House Floor” when the speaker vote comes up and not Steve Scalise.

She leaves the door open for Mr Scalise saying that she likes and respects him, but says she wants “a Speaker who is able to put their full efforts into defeating the Communist Democrats and Save America”.

Looks like he has some negotiating to do...

Eric Garcia writes from Capitol Hill:

...beyond the current fight, there is one question nobody is asking: Why in God’s name would any rational Republican member of Congress take the job? Any study of the most recent Republican speakers shows the job requires making promises that are impossible to keep and inevitably infuriating enough of the conference that you leave in disgrace.

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Haley Talbot of CNN has been tracking the no votes against Steve Scalise for speaker and those House Republicans who currently say they are undecided, and things look to be trending in the wrong direction, with nine no votes and seven undecideds.

The current House Majority Leader has a lot of work to do if he wants to win the gavel anytime soon...