WASHINGTON — House lawmakers on Wednesday elected little-known Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana as the 56th speaker of the House, capping more than three weeks of dysfunction and chaos on Capitol Hill. "Mike is a strong leader who has the full support of our entire conference, and has a proven track record as a conservative leader who will fight for the American people against President Biden's radical agenda that is crushing hard-working families," Scalise said in the statement. "We need to move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown in 22 days. Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can," the president said.
Mike Johnson Elected as the New House Speaker, Putting an End to Weeks of Gridlock
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), another Johnson critic, delivered a similar message, but also appeared to leave the door open to supporting Greene’s resolution. Yet despite the loud rhetoric and persistent vows, the delays and waffling from Greene and her two-man army are leading some to predict that the Georgia Republican will never move to force a vote on her resolution, letting the clock run out until the November elections. “Of course I talked to my friends,” he told The Hill when asked if he spoke with Greene and Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), the third Republican backing the ouster effort. AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports on a Republican congresswoman moving forward with a bid to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Greene leaves them guessing on threat to oust Speaker Johnson
In one of his first gestures after his election, Johnson told Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries that he looked forward to working with him. Here are five things to know about Mike Johnson and his views on views on Ukraine, former president Donald Trump and the 2020 election. To show support for racial equality, Mr. Johnson in the past has told audiences that he and his wife adopted a Black teenager they met through an evangelical youth group — like the movie “The Blind Side” but without the N.F.L. prospects, he has quipped. Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican and the first to be nominated for speaker following Mr. McCarthy’s ouster, was ultimately seen as insufficiently pro-Trump by too many of his colleagues.
Who is Mike Johnson? Five things to know about the new Republican House speaker
He presented colleagues with arguments they could use to oppose the will of the voters without embracing conspiracy theories and the lies of widespread fraud pushed by Mr. Trump. Mr. Johnson instead faulted the way some states had changed voting procedures during the pandemic, saying it was unconstitutional. No credible evidence has ever emerged to support the conspiracy theories about Dominion and another voting machine firm having helped to ensure Mr. Trump’s defeat. In April, Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation suit by Dominion over reports broadcast by Fox that Dominion machines were susceptible to hacking and had flipped votes from Mr. Trump to Mr. Biden. Mainstream conservatives who backed Mr. Johnson said they hoped to quickly move to pull the House out of its funk. Almost immediately after Mr. Johnson was elected, lawmakers began debating a resolution expressing solidarity with Israel and condemning Hamas, which passed overwhelmingly.
House chamber mood is chipper and lively ahead of speaker vote
Or, they said, Johnson could simply resign, pointing to the example of a previous speaker, Republican John Boehner of Ohio, who stepped aside in 2015 when hard-liners threatened to oust him. Johnson is the sixth Republican elevated to the speakership since 1994, the year the party won its first House majority and elected a speaker of its own for the first time in 40 years. The hard truth is that the five who preceded Johnson (McCarthy, Paul Ryan, John Boehner, Dennis Hastert and Newt Gingrich) all saw their time in the office end in relative degrees of defeat or frustration.
Trump ally Mike Johnson elected House speaker three weeks after McCarthy ouster - CNN
Trump ally Mike Johnson elected House speaker three weeks after McCarthy ouster.
Posted: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
After the 2020 election, Johnson led an amicus brief signed by more than 100 House Republicans in support of a lawsuit brought by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to overturn the election results in four swing states won by President Biden. Johnson is close to Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, who strategized with Trump on how to overturn his presidential defeat and lost his own bid for speaker earlier this week after moderates in the conference revolted. Among the more conservative members of the GOP conference, Johnson has consistently opposed a woman’s right to abortion — “we will get the number of abortions to ZERO!!
Republicans who opposed Jordan for speaker are now rallying behind Johnson
In 2022, he introduced a bill aiming to ban mention of sexual orientation and gender identity in federally funded institutions. Called the Stop the Sexualization of Children Act, it was equated to Florida's controversial "Don't Say Gay" bill. During the turmoil, the House was led by a speaker pro tempore, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., the bow tie-wearing chairman of the Financial Services Committee. ” lawmakers chanted at a press conference after the late-night internal vote, surrounding Johnson and posing for selfies in a show of support. In the House, far-right members had refused to accept a more traditional speaker, and moderate conservatives didn’t want a hard-liner.
Democrats torpedo Marjorie Taylor Greene push to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson
5 things to know on Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House - NBC News
5 things to know on Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House.
Posted: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Far-right members have refused to accept a more traditional speaker, and moderate conservatives don’t want a hard-liner. While Johnson had no opponents during the private roll call late Tuesday, some two dozen Republicans did not vote, more than enough to sink his nomination. Johnson of Louisiana swept on the first ballot with support from all Republicans anxious to put the past weeks of tumult behind and get on with the business of governing. He has expressed disapproval of the landmark Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage in 2015 and is supported by a record 71 percent of Americans.
Johnson sworn in as House speaker: "The people's House is back in business"
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton had asked the Supreme Court to block "the use of unlawful election results without review and ratification by" the four state legislatures and allow them to appoint a different slate of presidential electors. 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. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican conference, will deliver the speech nominating Johnson for speaker, according to a Republican aide. The four absences mean Johnson will need 215 votes to win the speakership if all members in the chamber vote for a candidate. "House Democrats believe that when members of the body voted to reject the results of the 2020 election, they forfeited their ability to lead this chamber," Aguilar said. 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."
His predecessor, Frederick Gillett of Massachusetts, also had the top job for less than five years. But when he left after the 1924 session, his party was still firmly in control and had just elected President Calvin Coolidge to a full term. 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. The current state of internal politics among House Republicans is so unsettled that almost anything could happen at almost any time.
"Today is the day that House Republicans will humbly look in our hearts and elect Mike Johnson as speaker of the People's House," she said. "He is certainly a far contrast from who Republicans have nominated," he said, adding. "End the chaos. End the dysfunction. End extremism. Let's open up the People's House." Shortly after 1 p.m., the House began voting for speaker, with Johnson as the Republican nominee and Jeffries as the Democratic nominee. Asked if he was worried Johnson might attempt to overturn the results of the 2024 election, Mr. Biden said he wasn't. "There are many throughout this country who are understandably alarmed at the turbulence of the moment, at the chaos, the dysfunction and the extremism that has been unleashed in this chamber from the very beginning of this Congress," he said.
The podcasts, spanning 69 episodes, offer an extended window into Mr. Johnson's views and politics, as he co-hosts the program with his wife, a licensed pastoral counselor. In it, the man who has just been elected speaker, an evangelical Christian, talks at length about his vehement opposition to abortion rights, calls the Democratic agenda socialist, and rails against the prosecution of Mr. Trump for his efforts to interfere in the 2020 election. While Republicans are celebrating finally electing a speaker, across the Capitol, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, chimes in with a reminder of the impending mid-November government shutdown looming unless Congress can pass legislation to keep it funded.
"He's a really nice guy. He's a true family man. He's a man of faith, gets along with everybody. It doesn't mean he's not principled or conservative — clearly he is," LaHood said in an interview. "But I think he was viewed as the least objectionable person in the process, and he was in the right place at the right time." He'll have to work within his party and with the Biden White House to figure out how to fund the government before money runs out on Nov. 17 and on delivering critical aid packages to U.S. allies, Ukraine and Israel. In the ensuing weeks, various factions of the 221-member GOP Conference clashed over who should succeed McCarthy, paralyzing the lower chamber and preventing any legislative work from proceeding amid a new threat of a government shutdown and ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. Johnson's election represents a temporary cease-fire in a GOP civil war that began when Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., and seven other GOP rebels teamed with Democrats to oust Republican Kevin McCarthy from the speaker’s office.
Mr. Johnson’s abrupt rise to the speaker post this week in the depressed and divided House Republican conference underscores the rightward lurch of the G.O.P., which dumped his more mainstream predecessor, Representative Kevin McCarthy of California. When Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana wanted to make the case against abortion rights last year during a Capitol Hill committee hearing, he grilled a witness in graphic fashion. A Trump ally, Johnson was one of the leaders of the GOP effort to keep the former president in power after his defeat to Joe Biden in 2020. Johnson led the amicus brief, signed by 100 Republicans, backing a Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate the 2020 election results in four swing states won by Biden. As GOP Conference vice chairman, a post he has held since 2021, Johnson is the seventh-ranking Republican on the leadership team.
The Louisianan was a key player in former President Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Johnson not only voted against certifying some states’ election results, he also helped rally over 100 House Republicans to sign a brief in support of a Texas-led effort to get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the results in four states won by then-candidate Joe Biden, a Democrat. McCarthy was the first speaker in history to be removed by a vote on the House floor, leaving a vacancy in the Republican leadership while the party holds a razor-thin majority. Most importantly, he was able to get all of their 220 votes to become speaker on the House floor.
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