Mike Johnson elected House speaker with unanimous GOP support, ending weeks of chaos

Table Of Content

• Bipartisan lawmakers "interacted more this week than we have in the last four years," GOP congressman says
• House conservatives signal they'll give Johnson more runway on spending bills
• Johnson wins speaker vote 220-209
• Rep. Mike Johnson has been elected speaker. Here's what to know
• House voting now to pass resolution in support of Israel in war against Hamas
• House to take up resolution declaring support for Israel

Mr. Emmer had attempted to mollify Mr. Trump by calling him over the weekend and praising him, according to the former president. A majority of those opposed to Mr. Emmer were members of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus and loyal to Mr. Trump. Mr. Emmer’s demise was the latest evidence of the seemingly unending Republican dysfunction. He began the day with a scant victory, winning an internal party nominating contest by a vote of 117 to 97 over Mr. Johnson. The glimmer of consensus came only hours after Mr. Emmer’s abrupt exit made him the third Republican this month to be chosen to lead the party, only to have his bid collapse in a seemingly endless cycle of G.O.P. grievances, personality conflicts and ideological rifts.

Bipartisan lawmakers "interacted more this week than we have in the last four years," GOP congressman says

Kevin McCarthy is out as speaker of the House. What happens next? - PBS NewsHour

Kevin McCarthy is out as speaker of the House. What happens next?.

Posted: Tue, 03 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

In 1997, several Republican congressional leaders tried to force Speaker Newt Gingrich to resign. However, Gingrich refused since that would have required a new election for speaker, which could have led to Democrats along with dissenting Republicans voting for Democrat Dick Gephardt (then minority leader) as speaker. After the 1998 midterm elections where the Republicans lost seats, Gingrich did not stand for re-election. The next two figures in the House Republican leadership hierarchy, Majority Leader Richard Armey and Majority Whip Tom DeLay chose not to run for the office.

House conservatives signal they'll give Johnson more runway on spending bills

The 30-year saga began with Gingrich of Georgia, who was the first member of his party to gain "the big gavel" since the early 1950s and the presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower. Gingrich had been a backbench rabble-rouser since coming to the House in 1978 and built up a cadre of supporters until he won the party's No. 2 power position as minority whip in 1989. Two colleagues had spoken up to say they would join Greene in such a vote, giving her enough to defeat the speaker if all the chamber's Democrats voted to do the same. That's what the Democrats did when a motion to vacate the chair ousted the last Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, last fall. Greene had vowed to press her challenge after Johnson announced a strategy to pass $95 billion in aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan earlier this month.

Johnson wins speaker vote 220-209

About two-thirds of that money was for Ukraine, an issue Greene had called her "red line" for moving against the speaker. Since Gingrich’s tenure, speakers are often criticized as too partisan and too powerful, trampling minority party interests. First, they are the most visible and authoritative spokesperson for the majority party in the House. Speakers articulate an agenda and explain legislative action to other Washington officials as well as the public. They oversee House committee assignments and collaborate with the powerful House Rules Committee to structure floor debate.

Rep. Mike Johnson has been elected speaker. Here's what to know

If the President of the United States dies or steps down, the Vice President of the United States becomes President. If there is no vice president, the Speaker of the House automatically becomes acting president. "I made my decision based on my relationship with the conference," Emmer told reporters when asked whether Trump helped doom his candidacy. Majority Whip Tom Emmer of Minnesota declined Tuesday to say whether former President Donald Trump was a factor in his decision to end his bid for the speakership. GOP lawmakers who withheld their support for Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio during his three rounds of voting on the House floor are beginning to line up behind Johnson. Jeffries closed his remarks declaring, "Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. He's doing a great job under difficult circumstances and no amount of election denialism will ever change that reality. Not now. Not ever."

3 Republicans Now Back Motion to Vacate Speaker Mike Johnson — But Will Dems Join Them This Time? - Truthout

3 Republicans Now Back Motion to Vacate Speaker Mike Johnson — But Will Dems Join Them This Time?.

Posted: Mon, 22 Apr 2024 16:23:30 GMT [source]

House voting now to pass resolution in support of Israel in war against Hamas

In particular, there has been tension between Scalise supporters and Jordan's and McCarthy’s camps as the speakership crisis plays out. Gaetz also addressed reports that McCarthy had yelled at him during a House GOP conference meeting earlier today and that Illinois Rep. Mike Bost then cursed at him. Amid the ongoing chaos in the speaker-less House, Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz defended his decision to lead the effort to oust Kevin McCarthy from his speakership but did not articulate what he got out of it besides removing the California Republican from the position. Meanwhile, one of the Republicans who voted against Jordan told members during a closed-door meeting today that they had to have a law enforcement officer stationed at their daughter’s school because of threats this member has been getting. Some Jordan holdouts are refusing to meet with the speaker designee or to take his calls, sources told CNN — a sign of the uphill climb Jordan faces in winning over his opposition.

Nancy Pelosi was elected Speaker of the House, becoming the first woman to hold the position. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a progressive who is a member of the Armed Services Committee, said Sunday he would protect Johnson’s job if members of his far-right flank go through with their threat to oust him. "It gives benefit to Jim Jordan. Even though I’ve supported Jim Jordan, it’s not fair in my view to do that and then give him more time because the other candidates haven’t had that time," Lesko said.

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Her leadership in enshrining the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law helped restore the ability of women to fight pay discrimination in the courts and ensure they too could participate in the economic recovery. Pelosi also led the Congress in enacting the historic Dodd-Frank reforms to rein in big banks and create strong protections for consumers, seniors and Servicemembers. The challenge for House Republicans is they still have eight more spending bills to pass including two that have been stuck in committee because of disagreements within GOP ranks. In his letter to colleagues, Johnson set out an aggressive time table for passing the bills, but the issue will be finding a way to pass the legislation in just a narrow GOP majority. This marks a clear departure from how those same members viewed former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s decision earlier this month to put a short-term spending bill on the floor, which ultimately led to his ouster. Critics refer to it either as a laid-back “la-la land” or, conversely, as a place reeling from earthquakes, fire, smog, gang warfare, and riots.

Wednesday morning, hours before an expected vote, Trump, the de facto leader of the Republican Party, said he wasn't technically endorsing Johnson but suggesting the House elect him. He voted against bipartisan legislation to codify same-sex marriage, which Biden signed into law last year. In Biden’s first two years, Johnson voted against a slew of bipartisan bills — including one to establish a Jan. 6 independent commission, the infrastructure law, reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a modest new gun law and the CHIPS and Science Act. In the Trump presidency, Johnson argued that then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi's move to rip up a copy of his State of the Union speech was a crime. “A lot of people have been talking about this the last 48 hours, and I did a little legal memo to point out to my colleagues that she actually committed a felony,” Johnson said on Fox News at the time.

The holdouts have also heard from conservative New York donors in recent days encouraging them to get on board with a Jordan speakership, sources say. In 1989 Speaker Jim Wright of Texas resigned under pressure following revelations about a book deal the House Ethics Committee saw as circumventing fundraising rules. Longworth's successor, John "Cactus Jack" Garner of Texas, left the office after just over a year to be Franklin Roosevelt's first vice president.

She led House Democrats for 20 years and previously served as House Democratic Whip. In 2013, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame at a ceremony in Seneca Falls, the birthplace of the American women’s rights movement. Nancy Pelosi served as the 52nd Speaker of the House of Representatives, having made history in 2007 when she was elected the first woman to serve as Speaker of the House. She made history again in January 2019 when she regained her position second-in-line to the presidency – the first person to do so in more than six decades. Ballotpedia features 486,932 encyclopedic articles written and curated by our professional staff of editors, writers, and researchers. Asked if he would bring a vote to oust Johnson if he put forth a short-term spending bill at current spending levels, Rep. Matt Gaetz said he’s optimistic Johnson will be able to actually pass the individual spending bills.

On Wednesday, Mr. Johnson was toiling to help Republicans turn the page from the chaos of the past few weeks. He said there would be none of the typical celebrations that accompany the election of a new speaker. Mr. Johnson was only able to emerge as his party’s nominee for speaker this week after three other G.O.P. nominees before him were unable to rally enough support. In the years before he arrived in Congress in 2017, Mr. Johnson worked as an attorney and spokesman for the anti-abortion-rights and anti-gay group Alliance Defense Fund — now called the Alliance Defending Freedom. During that time, he expressed some of his hard-line views in editorials in the local newspaper in his hometown of Shreveport, La.

Prior to entering Congress, Clark served in the Massachusetts state House and Senate. She also worked in the state attorney general’s office as a policy director and served on the Melrose School Committee. “I am humbled and honored to serve the American people as the @HouseDemocrats Whip for the 118th Congress,” added Clark, who ran unopposed. In a statement emailed to CNN, Garcia said that comics are especially significant to him because they helped him learn English after coming to the US from Peru. "We actually interacted more this week than we have in the last four years. And if anything, that relationship-building is where it was at." A leader on conservation and the environment at home and abroad, Pelosi authored legislation to create the Presidio Trust and transform San Francisco’s former military post into an urban national park.

Reed, however, declared that members who were in the chamber but refused to vote would still count for the purposes of determining a quorum. Through these and other rulings, Reed ensured that the Democrats could not block the Republican agenda. Arizona Rep. Debbie Lesko, a supporter of Jim Jordan's bid for House speaker, said the Ohio Republican would need to "step aside" if he can't secure the floor votes needed to win the gavel.