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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. “I look forward to meeting with Speaker Johnson soon to discuss the path forward to avoid a government shutdown,” Mr. Schumer said in a statement.
Ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is out for vengeance - Los Angeles Times
Ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is out for vengeance.
Posted: Sun, 21 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
His role in promoting 2020 election denial
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. After a mob of Mr. Trump’s supporters, believing the election was rigged, stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and injured about 150 police officers, Mr. Johnson condemned the violence. But he defended the actions of congressional Republicans in objecting to Mr. Biden’s victory. 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.
Luna reverses on support of Scalise
Scalise had been the party's first nominee after McCarthy was ousted, but withdrew his name one day after winning the internal GOP vote. Emmer began to lose support from conservative lawmakers shortly after Trump's missive, and he bowed out of the contest shortly after. 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. Democrats will nominate Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and they are being urged to vote for him, according to a notice from Democratic whip Katherine Clark's office. Rep. Pete Aguilar , the Democratic caucus chair, will deliver the nominating speech for Jeffries. Stefanik praised Johnson as a "man of deep faith" who is a "titan" on the Judiciary Committee and "dedicated member" of the Armed Services Committee.
Representatives
Johnson praises former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, unceremoniously deposed three weeks ago. Says “he is the reason we are in this majority today,” a nod to his political skills. Johnson says that he will bring to the floor “in just a little while” a resolution in support of Israel.
After the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in June last year, he celebrated. Mr. Johnson said Mr. Jordan called him when he was running for office, because “he knew I was a conservative,” contributed money to his campaign and invited him to Washington for a meeting with him and other Freedom Caucus members. The election on Wednesday of Mr. Johnson, 51, to the post second in line to the presidency has focused new attention on his behind-the-scenes role in trying to overturn the election results on behalf of former President Donald J. Trump. We’re seeing a little bit of that here, with his gracious words toward Jeffries, promising to work together and find common ground. “We went through a lot to get here, but we are ready to govern and that will begin right away,” Johnson says in his first news conference as speaker. Representative Ken Buck of Colorado said that Mr. Johnson was not involved in postelection efforts to invalidate the results, even though Mr. Johnson was a critical player in those activities.
January 8, 2023, updates on Speaker Kevin McCarthy
However, despite having the right to vote, the speaker usually does not participate in debate and only votes on the most significant bills. 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. And to find a Republican speaker who left voluntarily in a moment of victory, moving on to another office, you have to go back to the mid-1920s. After 22 days of deliberations, 14 candidates, four nominees and three public floor votes, Johnson got the top gig in the House in October. The little-known-beyond-Louisiana conservative weathered a rough few weeks as the public—and many of his colleagues—discovered that he was far more aligned with the evangelical, hard-right flank of the GOP than they had realized.
Scalise brings a fresh face but a similar policy vision as McCarthy, Republicans say
She said that as vice chair of the Republican Conference, Johnson has "united all of our members to speak clearly and boldly on behalf of the American people." The California Democrat noted Johnson's role in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Rep. Pete Aguilar of California, chairman of the Democratic caucus, rose to nominate Jeffries for speaker and accused Republicans of manufacturing a crisis that has lasted 22 days. 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." The Democratic leader also vowed that his party will continue to support Ukraine to defeat Russia's aggression.
House speaker race highlights: Steve Scalise drops out and what happens next
Kevin McCarthy’s seven-year-plus dream to become House speaker finally became reality early Saturday morning. The California Republican’s tumultuous journey concluded after six Republican holdouts voted “present,” allowing him to win on the 15th ballot with a lower majority threshold. During the speaker battle, Trump proved more adept at hurting candidates than helping them win — his early endorsee, Jordan, flamed out on the floor. But Johnson's ability to avoid Trump's ire cleared a hurdle for him within the House GOP, which is attuned to the wishes of the "MAGA" base. Critics have dubbed it a federal "don't say gay" measure and argued that it's aimed at barring references to LGBTQ people. He voted this year in favor of the debt limit law negotiated by McCarthy and Biden.
Johnson prevailed after a chaotic process that saw three other GOP nominees fail to unite the party and secure a majority. He won 220 to 209 in the House vote on Wednesday with unanimous support among Republicans, who enjoy a slim majority in the chamber. He noted that Democrats provided support for legislation to raise the debt ceiling, avoid a government shutdown and provide disaster relief funding. After three weeks without a speaker, the House voted Wednesday to elect Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana. The next two Republican speakers would be John Boehner, elevated to the job by the GOP recapture of the House in the "Tea Party" election of 2010.
"The people's House is back in business," Johnson told colleagues before being sworn in. But the same members are warning they do believe Johnson starts in a more solid place with conservatives than McCarthy did.
After emerging from the leadership vacuum, Speaker Johnson said Congress must win back Americans’ faith. Jordan was nominated for the speakership by several conservative hard-liners over multiple rounds of voting last week, but the Ohio Republican maintained his support for McCarthy. Rogers had to be restrained from Gaetz after the Florida Republican failed to support Kevin McCarthy for speaker during the 14th ballot of the dayslong process. Gaetz later voted "present" on the 15th ballot, along with five other Republican holdouts, which lowered the majority threshold for McCarthy to win the speaker's gavel. Rep. Mike Johnson, a key figure in failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election, seems to have enough votes to secure the gavel after weeks of GOP infighting left the House in chaos.
The former president noted that all of them have supported him "in both mind and spirit" since he won the White House in 2016 and said the five candidates "are beyond reproach and represent the absolute best there is in the Republican Party." Rep. Carlos Giménez of Florida, who supported McCarthy over Jordan, called Johnson a "straightforward leader" who can unite the Republican conference in a post to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. Gimenez, former chief of the City of Miami Fire Department, highlighted that both Johnson and McCarthy are the sons of firefighters. 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.
Mr. Johnson immediately faces a host of challenges that dogged his predecessor, Mr. McCarthy. He is confronting a mid-November deadline to pass a measure to fund the government to avert a shutdown. And he will need to lead a conference deeply divided over foreign policy as Congress considers the Biden administration’s $105 billion funding request for Israel, Ukraine and the southern border. The vote put him second in line to the presidency, capping an extraordinary period of twists and turns on Capitol Hill. It marked a victory for the far right that has become a dominant force in the Republican Party, which rose up this month to effectively dictate the removal of an establishment speaker and the installation of an arch-conservative replacement. In an exclusive, wide-ranging interview with CNN ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, then-House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy outlined his plans for power.
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