Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson held onto his job on Friday, securing sufficient votes from his Republican colleagues to be reelected in a single spherical. It’s an abbreviated journey for Johnson, in comparison with the fifteen rounds that his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, endured to change into speaker.
“What we’re proposing now could be simply merely, as President Trump likes to say, a ‘return to frequent sense,’ and he’s precisely proper,” Johnson stated in his acceptance speech in entrance of the 119th Congress. In his handle, he promised to go after “unlawful aliens,” bolster the army, and provides extra energy to oldsters to outline their youngsters’s training, amongst different objectives. “I’m very grateful, personally, that this physique is crammed with women and men who’re dedicated to that change, to return to frequent sense. We will do that collectively, we should always.”
Johnson’s win comes after a coordinated push from President-elect Donald Trump and his allies to safe a vote within the incumbent’s favor. In late December, Trump endorsed Johnson for the position, referring to him as a “good, arduous working, non secular man” in a Reality Social post that included references to Beyoncé, Reverend Al Sharpton, and unsubstantiated claims of large-scale voter fraud within the 2024 election. Trump celebrated Johnson’s Friday win on Reality Social, too, writing that “Mike can be a Nice Speaker, and our Nation would be the beneficiary.”
Consultant Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the one Republican who voted in opposition to Johnson within the remaining tally. Although, initially, 9 Republicans abstained or voted in opposition to Johnson. One after the other, they modified their votes. Together with Massie, two different Republican members nonetheless weren’t certain—Representatives Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas.
For nearly an hour, as RealClearPolitics reported, “these two Republicans appeared like they had been about to hamstring the chief of their very own convention. When a second poll appeared imminent, South Carolina Rep. Nancy Mace dialed the president-elect on her cellphone.”
Based on a supply with direct information of the decision, Trump advised the pair they had been being “ridiculous.” “I received all these swing states, however whereas Democrats are over there sticking collectively, you two guys are screwing all of it up. The American folks need aid and the Trump agenda,” the president-elect reportedly advised the representatives. “You two are screwing all of it up.”
In an interview with Fox Information on Friday, Norman defined that he had doubted Johnson as a result of he wasn’t satisfied he had “the oomph or the willingness to battle for Trump’s agenda.”
“I stated, ‘Mike, are you going to present us particular examples of preventing for the issues we talked about? Will you give us your phrase?’ He stated, ‘Sure.’ So I stated, ‘OK, we’ll take you at your phrase.’ That’s why I modified my vote,” Norman stated, including “He’s going to have Trump backing him up, which is all a great factor.”
