In the end, Donald Trump was the one who saved Mike Johnson’s gavel Friday during a drama-filled House floor vote for speaker on the opening day of the new Congress.
Then, almost immediately after Trump convinced them to back his man, House hardliners put Johnson on notice: Follow our rules or next time, you’re out.
The president-elect managed to persuade Reps. Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas to switch their support back to Johnson—after they had already publicly cast votes against the Louisiana Republican, which was at odds with Trump’s wishes. Trump personally called Norman and Self and had an “entirely friendly” conversation with both lawmakers, a source told the Daily Beast.
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The call took place during the course of a tense, hour-long vote that remained open as Johnson and his allies—and the incoming 47th president of the United States—wooed and cajoled behind the scenes. The joint effort worked and Johnson was declared speaker again after the House voted 218-215, with all Democrats and a lone GOP dissenter, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, refusing to support Johnson.
“I’m giving the speaker the benefit of the doubt. The president wanted Mike, Mike got the job so we’ll see,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX), who reluctantly supported Johnson, told the Daily Beast on Friday evening.
But Roy and 10 other House Freedom Caucus leaders are making it clear they won’t be afraid to boot Johnson from his job if he doesn’t follow through with his promise to carry out a conservative agenda.
“Personalities can be debated later, but right now there is zero room for error on the policies the American people demanded when they voted for President Trump—the ones necessary to save the country,” the group wrote in a letter to the speaker laying out their demands. “We demand the House of Representatives deliver—quickly.”
The lawmakers wrote that they opted to back Johnson “despite our sincere reservations,” but felt it was necessary to “ensure the timely certification of [Trump’s] electors.”
Congress is scheduled to fulfill its constitutional duty to certify the 2024 presidential election results on Monday, Jan. 6. Had that been delayed by speaker upheaval, Trump’s inauguration plans could well have been upended.
The demands of the Freedom Caucus range from offsets for spending, adding additional work days to the House calendar and ending stock trading for lawmakers to eliminating the Biden-Harris student loan debt forgiveness. Several of the requests are unlikely to fly with moderate members of the GOP conference.
Multiple members of the far-right caucus helped lead the efforts to oust Johnson’s predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), and have warned the speaker that he could be next.
Roy said Johnson seemed open to some of their demands, but remains skeptical he will deliver.
“I mean, [open] ish,” the bearded GOP Texan said, adding, “there’s always the reservations.” He railed against Johnson for working with Democrats to fund the federal government, which he said allowed for $300 billion in additional deficit spending and resulted in a “cluster-crap show” in the days leading up to Christmas.
“So to say the leash is short is an understatement when it comes to whether that kind of stuff can happen,” Roy told reporters.
Sources close to Johnson told the Beast that he was not open to backroom deals to secure the votes needed to keep his job. But conservative critics applauded him for being amenable to including them in the reconciliation process—a mechanism to bypass the filibuster in the Senate in order to pass key parts of their agenda, which is expected to be a difficult lift with the House GOP’s tightest of margins.
In addition to Norman and Self flipping their votes, six Republican lawmakers opted not to vote at all on Friday when their names were initially called. Ultimately they backed Johnson on the first ballot, leaving Massie as the sole dissenter. But the nine of them sought to send a signal that they have the numbers to successfully put forward a motion to vacate Johnson from his leadership position under the new rules.
“Mike has the right motives, but there’s no real time to get this wrong. So we better get spending cuts. We better get the border secure, or, you know, we’ll have to have future conversations,” Roy told the Beast. “It’s a new year, there’s a new structure now with the trifecta—House, White House and the Senate.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) gave Trump some credit for calling off the rebels, but said Johnson’s meetings with potential defectors also helped sway minds—including his own.
“I think it was very good work by the speaker and other folks meeting individually with the people. Sometimes that’s the best way to deal with people,” he told the Beast. “Philosophically, I think that the speaker came to some kind of meeting of the minds with those folks—Freedom Caucus, conservative folks.”
Trump repeatedly made it clear Johnson was his pick. Senior Republicans in his orbit warned of potential repercussions for members if a drawn-out speaker race led to delays in the certification of the election and his congressional allies’ ability to bring key pieces of legislation to the floor.
And Johnson’s success, winning on the first ballot, also provides a much-needed win for Trump as he looks to retain his grip on the party after conservative firebrands tanked his preferred short-term spending bill in December, and then a handful of Senate Republicans forced his initial attorney general nominee, former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), to withdraw from consideration.
“I want Speaker Johnson to be successful,” Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), who signed the Freedom Caucus threat letter to Johnson, told the Beast. But he acknowledged that so far this Congress, the speaker only has his power because of Trump’s actions on Friday.
“Without the president I don’t think that would have gone through,” Crane said of the vote confirming Johnson as speaker.
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