By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2024-11-13 23:06:38 | Updated at 2024-11-24 06:16:18
1 week ago
House Republicans backed Speaker Mike Johnson as their leader in the next Congress to a man and woman Wednesday after President-elect Donald Trump warmly endorsed the Louisiana lawmaker at a meeting on Capitol Hill.
The 56th House speaker was re-nominated in a voice vote without any objections during a closed-door session at the Hyatt Regency steps from the Capitol, a source told The Post.
Even far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who led an ill-fated effort to oust Johnson (R-La.) earlier this year, said his position was secure.
“Most of the leadership positions are uncontested,” Greene (R-Ga.) told reporters before the vote.
Some hardline members had floated a challenge to Johnson’s speakership Tuesday evening, but backed off at the last moment — with no member willing to challenge the popular incumbent.
Trump, 78, had also popped in hours earlier to tell lawmakers he was with Johnson “all the way.”
Johnson is projected to carry a narrow majority when the House convenes Jan. 3 of next year.
Typically, speaker elections proceed along party lines, but Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) told reporters that Johnson’s automatic re-election would depend on negotiations with some members.
That could forecast a looming challenge from a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus.
Johnson needs 218 votes — a majority of the House’s 435 seats — to keep the speaker’s gavel.
House Republican conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) is one of three GOP members in line to depart Congress for the executive branch after Trump tapped her as his US ambassador to the United Nations on Sunday.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) was selected Tuesday as the soon-to-be 47th president’s national security adviser.
Trump had pledged not to nominate many more House Republicans for administration posts — hours before announcing far-right Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) as his next attorney general.
“He kind of jokingly said, you know, ‘I’d appoint 15 of you, but I can’t, because then you’d be in the minority,'” outgoing Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) told Axios.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) are expected to remain in their roles in the new year.
Both made brief and unsuccessful bids for the House speaker position after the ouster of Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last year, paving the way for Johnson to unite the warring conference.
Trump came out hard against Emmer in the GOP fight, slamming him as a “RINO” whose elevation to the top House position would be “a tragic mistake.”
The two have since patched things up, and Emmer endorsed Trump for re-election before the Iowa caucuses in January.
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) won a subsequent vote to replace Stefanik as conference chair.
She told The Post in an interview Wednesday that her fundraising and devotion to Trump’s “America First” agenda will make her a great leadership addition.
