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The new speaker has been in Congress since 2017 and has no experience in the House leadership. Mike Johnson, the Louisiana congressman who was elected speaker of the House of Representatives on Wednesday after a three-week standoff among Republicans, took the lead in filing a brief in a lawsuit that sought to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election win. That claim, widely panned by legal scholars of all ideologies, was quickly thrown out by the U.S. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., told reporters today that she will support Scalise for speaker when the formal vote takes place on the House floor. Also part of the proposal, Republicans familiar with it said, was a commitment by the leader to give the ultraconservative faction approval over a third of the seats on the powerful Rules Committee, which controls what legislation reaches the floor and how it is debated.
Donald Trump is running against Joe Biden. But he …
Ms. Alli and Ms. Cole work under the clerk of the House of Representatives, Cheryl L. Johnson, who is charged with keeping lawmakers in order until a new speaker is elected. The House is back to the floor for its 14th vote for speaker, and the one that Representative Kevin McCarthy is saying will finally clinch the deal for him. Even before the votes had been secured, many at the bar seemed convinced that electing a speaker was inevitable as the vote drew closer to a close. Pats on the back and smiles were exchanged, and many turned their attention away from the TVs. As the vote-casting began, a few people packed their bags, closed out their tabs and left.
Jordan will give the nomination speech for Scalise on the floor
But by late Tuesday night, Mr. Johnson appeared to have put together a coalition that brought him closer to capturing the speakership than any candidate has been since hard-right rebels deposed former Speaker Kevin McCarthy three weeks ago. Though it was not certain he had the votes to be elected, he said he planned to call for a floor vote on Wednesday at noon. Rep. Austin Scott of Georgia, who ran for speaker as a protest candidate against Jordan in the House GOP conference, also voted to certify the 2020 election.
House chamber mood is chipper and lively ahead of speaker vote
Why Trump is so happy about the new House speaker - CNN
Why Trump is so happy about the new House speaker.
Posted: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Despite the threat to his leadership, McCarthy passed the temporary budget bill, with the support of Democrats, just hours before the shutdown deadline Saturday night. Gaetz had said he would try to dethrone McCarthy if the GOP leader worked with Democrats to pass a stopgap government funding bill. The House of Representatives voted 216 to 210 on Tuesday to oust McCarthy, following a GOP revolt led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).
The announcement Friday afternoon came as protests escalated at the school’s campus in Los Angeles after school officials canceled an address by the student, Asna Tabassum, following complaints by a pro-Israel group that she had engaged in antisemitism in social media posts. Since then, Stefanik has led the charge among Republicans, pushing for the resignation of the university leaders. The presidents of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard have already resigned.
“You don’t want people who falsely claim the last election was stolen to be in a position of deciding who won the next one,” said Rick Hasen, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. On Wednesday, he flagged another worry about Johnson, who is a constitutional lawyer. Johnson’s opposition to abortion — he favors a national ban — and to same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ rights and protections is well documented in his pre-Congress work as an attorney for the socially conservative Alliance Defending Freedom. After the Dobbs decision overturned the constitutional right to an abortion, Johnson suggested that now women would produce more “able-bodied workers,” whose payroll tax contributions would help save Medicare and Social Security. Scalise, who voted to save McCarthy, has not said whether he wants the job. The House will now take a long break, with no votes expected before next Tuesday.
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Such steps, however, would inevitably prolong the process of approving spending bills. When Representative Chip Roy of Texas, then a freshman and now one of Mr. McCarthy’s most vocal opponents, forced roll call votes on every amendment in spending bills in 2019, the process of approving them dragged on for two weeks. Proponents of earmarks argue that they allow rank-and-file lawmakers to deliver for their constituents and smooth the process of keeping the government running, by giving members of Congress a tangible reason to vote in favor of spending bills. But Mr. McCarthy’s detractors, hard-line Republicans who have railed against federal spending, have demanded a commitment to crack down on the practice as a prerequisite for supporting him.
The third ballot
In an effort to win them over, Mr. McCarthy has offered to give rank-and-file lawmakers more influence in the process of writing spending bills. One official briefed on that emerging compromise said if a lawmaker took issue with a certain earmark, they could force such a vote. Upon hearing that a speaker had not been elected, shouts of disappointment filled the air. Last call came, before the Republicans voted to go to a 15th ballot instead of adjourning — an unexpected opportunity for another viewing party. The vitriolic attack on the top candidate for speaker from a member of his own party led some of Mr. McCarthy’s supporters to walk off the House floor while he spoke. And by the end of the day, with the majority of the detractors finally coalescing around Mr. McCarthy, Mr. Gaetz appeared to have softened his tone.
Some on the right opposed to Mr. Emmer cited his vote in favor of codifying federal protections for same-sex couples. Others railed against Mr. Emmer’s vote in favor of a stopgap spending bill put forward by Mr. McCarthy, the speaker at the time, to avert a government shutdown. Still others said he was insufficiently loyal to Mr. Trump, because he voted to certify the results of the 2020 election won by President Biden. In a secret-ballot vote on Tuesday night, Mr. Johnson got 128 votes, with 44 Republicans voting for nominees not on the ballot, including 43 for Mr. McCarthy, whom many view as unfairly ousted. Still, in a separate vote afterward, only a few Republicans indicated they would not back Mr. Johnson on the floor, while about 20 Republicans were absent. Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, a founder of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus and someone Mr. Johnson has described as a mentor, was the next member to be elected speaker designate in a secret ballot.
The elevation of Mr. Johnson, 51, an architect of the effort to overturn the 2020 election and a religious conservative opposed to abortion rights, homosexuality and gay marriage, further cemented the Republican Party’s lurch to the right. It came after a historic fight that began when the hard right ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 3, and raged on as the divided House G.O.P. nominated and then quickly discarded three other candidates to succeed him. Speaker designee Mike Johnson is working the floor ahead of his speakership vote, shaking hands and taking selfies with members. "On behalf of the House Republican conference, I rise today to nominate the gentleman from Louisiana, Mike Johnson, as speaker of the people's house," Stefanik said, which followed loud applause.
The year was 1923, the last time the House required multiple days and repeated votes to settle on a new speaker before this week’s continuing stalemate over the candidacy of Representative Kevin McCarthy, Republican of California. Former President Donald J. Trump made a crucially timed call to Representative Matt Gaetz on Friday night after the Florida congressman voted “present” and sunk Kevin McCarthy’s 14th effort to be elected House speaker. Six of the eight Republican candidates for House speaker voted to decertify the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021, in the hours after the assault on the U.S. Since then, nine Republicans have announced they're running, although Rep. Dan Meuser dropped out of the running on Monday night, leaving eight Republicans. All but two of them voted against certifying the 2020 presidential election. According to the rules of the Republican conference, once candidates are nominated — in alphabetical order — if none of the candidates win a majority of votes, the candidate who receives the lowest number of votes will be dropped from the ballot for the next round.
A bloc of Republicans had objected to the speaker bid of Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, the hard-right co-founder of the Freedom Caucus, because of his role in helping lead Mr. Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. Democrats were scathing in their assessment of Mr. Johnson’s ascent to the speakership. Representative Pete Aguilar of California, the Democratic conference chairman, said that the speaker fight had devolved into a contest over “who can appease Donald Trump.” At that line, a handful of hard-right Republicans stood and applauded.
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