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House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks to reporters during a weekly press conference at Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, on April 16, 2024.
The toughest job in America?
It’s a bit surprising that anyone wants to be Speaker of the US House of Representatives. Six months ago, Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by fellow Republicans after he dared to cooperate with House Democrats on funding the government. His replacement, Mike Johnson, now faces a battle to retain the gavel as he attempts to navigate between Democrats and an increasingly fractured GOP with rabble-rousers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene raising objections to foreign aid and threatening the Speaker’s job.
Facing threats from Republicans opposed to an aid package for Ukraine supported by the Biden administration, Johnson has cooked up a plan to “damn-the-torpedoes,” as Politico puts it, and go forward with the bill and two separate votes on additional aid packages: one for Israel in the wake of Iran’s attack and one for Taiwan. He also intends to pass two other bills (five in total), including one to increase border security and another that takes aim at Russia, Iran, and TikTok.
“My philosophy is you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may,” Johnson said about his plan to bring the bills to a vote this week. And fall they may as the MAGA crowd prepares reprisals, including meddlesome amendments or even a motion to vacate and boot Johnson from his position.
So now begins the battle between Johnson and hardliner Republicans, which in the next few days will shape not just the three bills in question and global geopolitics, but how Congress operates – or doesn’t.
The speaker struggle stands in contrast to a recent kerfuffle in Canada, where Speaker Anthony Rota resigned after his office welcomed a Ukrainian veteran who fought for the Nazis during World War II into the House of Commons. Rota was quickly replaced by Liberal member of Parliament Greg Fergus, and business in the Commons soon returned to its boisterous but mostly functional baseline.US Rep. Mike Johnson is surrounded by fellow members as he speaks to reporters after securing the nomination for House Speaker from the Republican conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Oct. 24, 2023.
The House Republican circus rolls on
It took five rounds of voting on Tuesday to make Tom Emmer of Minnesota the Republican nominee for speaker of the US House of Representatives … and about four more hours to persuade him his candidacy was doomed. Though he won a clear majority of House Republicans (117 of 221) in the final round of voting, he knew it wouldn’t be easy to earn the backing of 217 of 221 Republicans needed to win a majority of the full House.
That’s mainly because Emmer has a powerful Republican enemy: Donald Trump. Emmer voted to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory, and Trump has sought revenge by waging an aggressive campaign to discredit Emmer within the GOP caucus. By late afternoon on Tuesday, Trump had tweeted his opposition, and the game was up. Emmer had bowed out.
Late Tuesday night, House Republicans then voted to make Mike Johnson of Louisiana their fourth nominee for speaker. Can he get the 217 votes needed to win the job?
If he too falls short, House Republicans may finally decide they’ve had enough of closed-door meetings and secret ballots, and decide instead to empower the current temporary speaker, Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, to serve for a specified period up to several weeks. That would allow the House to negotiate with Democrats on the budgetary questions needed to keep the government from shutting down next month and to consider bills granting aid to Israel and Ukraine.
Or, they could go back to square one and start voting all over again, and your GZERO Newsletter team can just keep writing this same story every few days.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy speaks to reporters in the US Capitol after the House of Representatives passed a stopgap government funding bill to avert an immediate government shutdown.
Will avoiding a shutdown cost McCarthy the speakership?
There was no shortage of drama on Capitol Hill this weekend – including a pulled fire alarm that delayed voting by an hour – as the US government managed to avoid another shutdown. Congress passed a stopgap funding bill on Saturday that will keep the lights on through Nov. 17. The proposal easily cleared the House before garnering Senate approval 88 to 9. It included natural disaster aid but no new support for border restrictions or assistance for Ukraine.
The measure passed a day after Republican Rep. Andy Biggs and 20 others blocked a Republican stopgap bill replete with spending cuts, border controls, and curbs on immigration. Unable to fund the government with just conservative votes, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy changed gears, offering a bill that would satisfy Democrats. The absence of fresh support for Ukraine prompted Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet to briefly delay the vote, but bipartisan senators resolved the impasse by pledging to further fund aid to Ukraine "in the coming weeks." President Joe Biden made it clear that “We cannot under any circumstances allow American support for Ukraine to be interrupted.”
McCarthy is expected to introduce a separate Ukraine aid bill when the House returns. But having worked with Democrats to get this measure passed could cost him his job. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Republican hardliner, said on Sunday that he plans to move for McCarthy’s ouster this week.
If Gaetz introduces a measure to remove McCarthy, the House will have 48 hours to vote on it.
But McCarthy remains defiant. “If somebody wants to make a motion against me, bring it," he said. "There has to be an adult in the room. I am going to govern with what’s best for this country.”
Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) bangs the gavel for the first time after being elected the 55th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in a late night 15th round of voting on January 7, 2023.
Bruised McCarthy finally sworn in as House speaker
After four days and 15 rounds of voting, Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has finally been elected and sworn in as speaker of the House of Representatives, one of the most influential posts in the US government. Heading into Friday evening’s first vote, there were still six holdout Republicans: Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Eli Crane (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Bob Good (R-Va.), and Matthew M. Rosendale (R-Mont.). After a series of desperate backdoor negotiations, the 14th round saw Boebert and Gaetz vote as “present,” leaving McCarthy one vote shy of the gavel. Frustrations visibly boiled over in the chamber, and lawmakers finally elected McCarthy in the 15th round, with six voting as “present.” The humiliating last few days have demonstrated McCarthy’s limited sway over an unruly Republican caucus, and he was forced to make significant concessions, including agreeing to a provision that would allow a single lawmaker to bring to the floor a vote of no confidence against him at any time. The GOP stalwart had long resisted giving the ragtag of anti-establishment holdouts this sort of power but was forced to acquiesce.