After Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) became the leading contender in the House speaker's race on the night of October 12, when Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) dropped out, top U.S. newspapers — The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today — and broadcast TV coverage on ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS often failed to inform audiences of Jordan’s role in trying to overturn the 2020 election. 

A Media Matters analysis of coverage of the speaker's race between when Scalise dropped out on October 12 through October 17, the day of Jordan’s first failed speaker vote, found that just 35% of print articles and 32% of broadcast TV news coverage mentioned his role in subverting the 2020 election. What's more, none of the print articles or broadcast TV news segments noted the risk that a Republican-led House under Jordan’s leadership could refuse to certify a 2024 Biden victory. 

The U.S. House is currently speakerless, as GOP infighting has left the party unable to coalesce around a leader. Jordan, the current Republican speaker-designate and a Fox News favorite who has already lost two votes on the floor, played a key role in then-President Donald Trump’s public and private efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Jordan’s efforts included coordinating with Trump and others to delay the certification process, calling then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to encourage then-Vice President Mike Pence to discount allegedly “unconstitutional” electoral votes, and having multiple phone calls with Trump on January 6. The House January 6 committee, which Jordan was subpoenaed by but refused to cooperate with, identified him as “a significant player in President Trump’s efforts” in its final report. 

If Jordan becomes speaker, he would be the highest-ranking member of Congress ahead of the 2024 presidential election, giving his election denialism a significant platform and raising the question of whether a GOP-controlled House under his leadership would certify the result if Biden wins. The election would also put Jordan second in line for the presidency behind the vice president. 

In the top five papers in the U.S. by circulation — The New York Times, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post – only 7 out of 20 print articles on the speaker’s race between October 12 through 17, or 35%, mentioned Jordan’s role in Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. None of the articles connected Jordan’s demand that Congress refuse to certify Biden’s 2020 victory to Jordan’s new potential leadership role heading into the 2024 presidential election. 

The Wall Street Journal mentioned Trump’s endorsement of Jordan in a 1,800-plus-word article on the speaker fight, but it failed to mention Jordan’s involvement in the attempts to overturn the 2020 election. The article instead refers to Jordan as a “Freedom Caucus co-founder and longtime right-wing bomb-thrower whom former Speaker John Boehner once called a ‘legislative terrorist.’” 

An article published by The Washington Post ignored Jordan’s allyship with Trump and involvement in attempts to overturn the 2020 election, identifying him merely as a “hard-right Freedom Caucus founder.” The article asked if Democrats might “be willing to stomach a pretty conservative Republican speaker” but did not go into detail about Jordan’s history with election denialism.

After Scalise withdrew his name from contention and Jordan became the ostensible front-runner, ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS ran a combined total of 31 segments on the speaker’s race on their morning, evening, and Sunday news programming from October 12 through 17. Of those segments, just 10 — or 32% — identified Jordan’s active role in trying to subvert the 2020 election result following Trump’s loss. Each network aired either 2 or 3 segments that mentioned his role, but none of the segments on the race even mentioned the risk that the Republican-led House could refuse to certify a 2024 Biden victory under Jordan’s leadership.

During ABC’s flagship morning news show Good Morning America, correspondent Rachel Scott gave a report on Jordan’s nomination to House speaker that ignored the critical context that Jordan played a central role in attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Congress. Instead she merely noted that “the Ohio conservative is backed by Trump.” 

During an interview with House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on the speaker's race, Meet the Press host Kristen Welker ignored Jordan’s intimate role in trying to overturn the 2020 election and instead redirected responsibility to Democrats for Republicans’ failed efforts to coalesce around Jordan or another speaker. Welker pressed Jeffries, “Why haven’t formal conversations started yet?” and, “Don't you also bear a responsibility to try to bring this stalemate to an end?”

By contrast, as the GOP began rallying around Jordan, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow spotlighted both his “key role in Trump’s efforts to use Congress to try to overturn the election result in 2020” and the questions that role raises going forward. “If he does become speaker, it becomes basically an open question as to whether a House of Representatives under Jordan's leadership would ever certify the election results of an election in which Donald Trump ran but lost," she said.

Additionally, CNN’s Jake Tapper used Jordan’s nomination to speaker as an opportunity to extensively examine his role in January 6. Tapper highlighted that even some “prominent Republicans have been issuing a stark warning about Jim Jordan, specifically about his role in attempting to overturn the presidential election of 2020.”

Media Matters searched transcripts in the SnapStream video database for all original episodes of ABC’s Good Morning America, World News Tonight, and This Week; CBS’ Mornings, Evening News, and Face the Nation; NBC’s Today, Nightly News, Sunday Today, and Meet the Press; and PBS’ NewsHour for any of the terms “Jordan,” “Scalise,” or “McCarthy” within close proximity of any of the terms “speaker,” “race,” “House,” “Republican,” “GOP,” “representative,” “caucus,” “vote,” or “elect” or any variation of the term “lead” from October 12, 2023, when Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) dropped out of the House speaker's race, through October 17, 2023.

We also searched print articles in the Factiva and Nexis databases from the Los Angeles Times, The New York Times, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post for any of the terms “Jordan,” “Scalise,” or “McCarthy” within roughly the same paragraph as any of the terms “speaker,” “race,” “House,” “Republican,” “GOP,” “representative,” “caucus,” “vote,” or “elect” or any variation of the term “lead” from October 12, 2023, through October 17, 2023.

We included segments, which we defined as instances when the House speaker's race after Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) ouster was the stated topic of discussion or when we found significant discussion of the race. We defined significant discussion as instances when two or more speakers in the segment discussed the race with one another.

We also included articles, which we defined as instances when the House speaker's race was mentioned in the headline or lead paragraphs.

We then reviewed the identified segments and articles for whether they included any mention of Rep. Jim Jordan’s (R-OH) role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection, which included describing or mentioning any of the following: that Jordan features prominently in the House January 6 committee's final report, that Jordan was a key player in the events that unfolded that day, that Jordan called on then-President Donald Trump and others to delay the certification process, that Jordan called then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to encourage then-Vice President Mike Pence to discount allegedly “unconstitutional” electoral votes, that Jordan had multiple phone calls with Trump that day, that Jordan attacked and criticized the committee and its investigation, and that Jordan refused to comply with a subpoena.

We also reviewed the segments and articles for whether they mentioned the potential risk that a Jordan-led House could refuse to certify the 2024 election.