Johnson emerged as the fourth Republican nominee for the job after weeks without a speaker
WASHINGTON, DC — Rep. Mike Johnson easily secured enough votes to be elected House speaker on Wednesday, as Republicans were eagerly elevating the little-known conservative leader to the seat of U.S. power and ending for now the political chaos in their majority.
“I think he’s gonna be a fantastic speaker,” Trump said Wednesday at the New York courthouse where the former president, who is now the Republican front-runner for president in 2024, is on trial over a lawsuit alleging business fraud.Three weeks on without a House speaker, the Republicans have been wasting their majority status — a maddening embarrassment to some, democracy in action to others, but not at all how the House is expected to function.
With Republicans controlling the House only 221-212 over Democrats, Johnson can afford just a few detractors to win the gavel. Elevating Johnson to speaker would give Louisianians two high-ranking GOP leaders, putting him above Scalise, who was rejected by hard-liners in his own bid as speaker. Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who led a small band of hard-liners to engineer McCarthy's ouster at the start of the month, posted on social media that “Mike Johnson won’t be the Speaker the Swamp wants but, he is the Speaker America needs.”
Many hard-liners have been resisting a leader who voted for the budget deal that McCarthy struck with Biden earlier this year, which set federal spending levels that far-right Republicans don't agree with and now want to undo. They are pursuing steeper cuts to federal programs and services with next month's funding deadline.
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