If, as is popularly said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, then the House of Representatives will shortly become America’s pre-eminent asylum. After spending much of the last session focusing on Beltway food fights while Joe Biden did his Nero act from the Oval Office, the House Republican caucus appears poised to do so again to greet a returning Donald Trump.
However, Trump has just put out his best effort to hold this off. Less than an hour ago, Trump endorsed Mike Johnson to return as Speaker, and tried to remind House Republicans to fight for his agenda rather than amongst each other:
We are the Party of COMMON SENSE, a primary reason that we WON, in a landslide, the magnificent and historic Presidential Election of 2024. ALL SEVEN SWING STATES, 312 ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTES, AND THE POPULAR VOTE BY MILLIONS OF VOTERS (Despite large scale voter fraud taking place in numerous states, including California, where votes are ridiculously still being counted, or under review!), ALL WON WITH EASE, CALM, & PROFESSIONALISM. Republicans are being praised for having run a “legendary” campaign! Democrats are being excoriated for their effort, having wasted 2.5 Billion Dollars, much of it unaccounted for, with some being used to illegally buy endorsements ($11,000,000 to Beyoncé, who never even sang a song, $2,000,000 to Oprah for doing next to nothing, and even $500,000 to Reverend AL, a professional con man and instigator, who agreed to “interview” their “star spangled” candidates, Kamala and Joe). We ran a flawless campaign, having spent FAR LESS, with lots of money left over. They ran a very expensive “sinking ship,” embracing DOJ & FBI WEAPONIZATION against their political opponent, ME. BUT IT DIDN’T WORK, IT WAS A DISASTER!!! LETS NOT BLOW THIS GREAT OPPORTUNITY WHICH WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN. The American people need IMMEDIATE relief from all of the destructive policies of the last Administration. Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total Endorsement. MAGA!!!
Are Republicans the party of common sense? Heck, not even Mike Johnson really embodies it, as Trump well knows. Part of this revolt — not all of it, but part — has its energy from Trump’s intervention in the CR that Johnson first floated before Christmas, a 1500-page porkfest that gave away the store. Trump also complained yesterday about the debt-ceiling extension from Kevin McCarthy two years ago, a point which he wanted Johnson to renegotiate now rather than stick him with the issue in the summer:
The Democrats must be forced to take a vote on this treacherous issue NOW, during the Biden Administration, and not in June. They should be blamed for this potential disaster, not the Republicans!
The Speaker fight didn’t make much sense last session, ‘common’ or otherwise, and it makes less sense now. One can make the case that the GOP needed a different kind of speaker to fight against a Democrat president and a Democrat-controlled Senate, but that’s not the situation now. The GOP controls both chambers and the White House for the next two years. The Speaker and Senate Majority Leader will follow the president’s leadership (within reason) and must work together to push Trump’s agenda in the next two years.
That’s why Trump is emphasizing “IMMEDIATE” relief in his message. He doesn’t just want to hit the ground running, Trump needs to hit the ground running. Two years may be all he gets with this kind of control, and he doesn’t want to waste several months of it on a leadership food fight that won’t matter to anyone outside the Beltway anyway. As unhappy as Johnson made Trump the last couple of weeks, he knows that a leadership fight will only serve to derail his agenda when time matters most.
Former Speaker Newt Gingrich blasted the effort to unseat Johnson yesterday in an interview with John Catsumatidis. His contention that Johnson is doing an “extraordinary job” may be arguable, but his point about the pointlessness of the challenge is not:
Gingrich stressed that Republicans should stay focused on key issues, such as tax cuts, but also be a unified front as the GOP takes over control in the Senate and the White House next month.
“They need a Republican unity program for the next two years. These guys who wake up every morning and say, ‘I’m going to vote no. What’s the issue?’ are totally destructive and hand the House over to the Democrats,” Gingrich said. “So they need to start this new year with a pledge that every Republican is going to stick together – they’re going to be a single team.”
What is the point of a challenge, anyway? What agenda won’t Johnson serve with Trump in the White House and John Thune in charge of the Senate? This is looking less like a principled stand and more like inside-the-Beltway ambitions in play, at least according to Politico:
Rep. CHIP ROY (R-Texas) is conducting a temperature check to determine the viability of Rep. JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio) and other possible candidates if MIKE JOHNSON is unable to secure another term with the speaker’s gavel, our Olivia Beavers writes in. …
Such conversations come just days before the Friday floor vote that will determine if Johnson can secure a second term as speaker. It could be a bad sign for Johnson that Roy is trying to find a fallback option: To maintain the gavel, Johnson can’t risk losing the support of more than two House Republicans, and Rep. THOMAS MASSIE (R-Ky.) has already publicly announced his opposition. Roy himself was particularly critical of Johnson after the latest government spending bill passed ahead of the holidays.
While some Republicans also believe this could be a ploy to gain leverage against Johnson as Roy campaigns to lead the House Rules Committee, which is among the few panels whose leaders and membership are solely appointed by the speaker, Roy allies fiercely dispute these efforts are connected.
Will Trump’s endorsement put an end to these back-bench machinations? We’ll see, especially if Trump follows up with some pointed commentary aimed at the challengers. Roy’s district isn’t far from my own, and it has a solidly pro-Trump constituency.
Finally, this comes at an awkward and somewhat ironic time. Congress has to count and conclude the Electoral College votes and process for Trump’s win to become official, which takes place in a joint session of Congress. Will this food fight derail Trump’s victory, four years after the January 6 riot that nearly derailed Trump’s official loss? Er … probably not, Roll Call reports:
Levitt also said that although the regular House cannot do business without a speaker, it is a different body — constitutionally — when it is part of a joint session to count the votes.
“I don’t think, as a constitutional matter, there is an impediment to members of the body proceeding with the electoral count if the body can’t do any work on its own without electing a speaker,” Levitt said.
The House, along with the Senate, also typically passes a concurrent resolution to enter in the joint session and lay out the procedures they will follow. Levitt pointed out that those same procedures are also laid out in the 2022 electoral count law, and Harris could rely on the statute to proceed with the count.
“As far as the Constitution goes, all the things you need are the Senate, the House and the president of the Senate, who is the sitting vice president,” Levitt said.
Let’s hope that common sense prevails and we avoid another embarrassing precedent.
Read the full article here