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Allies of Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., are calling for it President-elect Trump to publicly reaffirm support for the House GOP leader to avoid a messy and protracted battle that could delay the certification of his own victory.
“If we have some kind of protracted fight where we can’t elect a spokesperson, the spokesperson isn’t elected; we’re not sworn in. And if we’re not sworn in, we can’t certify the election,” Rep. Carlos Gimenez, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital.
“I hope President Trump would step in and talk to those who might be a little hesitant and say, ‘We have to get started. We don’t have time.'”
Meanwhile, Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital that “it would be very helpful” if Trump intervened.
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Speaker Mike Johnson’s allies are looking to President-elect Trump for help to avoid a drawn-out and messy race. (Getty Images)
“Anytime would be great, but right after Christmas if President Trump said, ‘You know, listen,’ it would even be great if somehow Mike Johnson ended up at Mar-a-Lago for Christmas … wherever be the president.” Fallon said. “I think it would be incredibly powerful.”
House lawmakers return to Washington, DC, for a chamber-wide vote to elect the speaker on Friday, January 3. A few days later, on Monday January 6, the House will meet to certify the results of the 2024 elections.
Johnson faces a potentially uphill battle to win the speaker’s gavel for a full term in Congress, with several House Republicans vocally critical of the Louisiana Republican and his handling of government funding.
His predecessor suffered 14 public defeats in his quest to win the gavel, finally getting it after days of back-and-forth negotiations on the 15th vote of the entire House.
When he was impeached, Johnson won after a three-week inter-GOP battle that saw Congress gridlocked for its duration.
But some House Republicans are now warning that little delay can be afforded in what Trump himself has said he expects to be a very active first 100 days of his second term.
“To ensure that President Trump can take office and begin work on January 20, we must be able to certify the 2024 election on January 6. However, without a speaker, we cannot complete this process,” the Deputy Claudia Tenney. RNY, he told Fox News Digital.
Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas, is one of Johnson’s supporters (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Tenney warned that it could delay “the rollout of his agenda.”
Congress narrowly averted a partial government shutdown hours after a Dec. 20 federal funding deadline by passing a bill to extend that deadline to March 14, while extending several other key programs and replenish the FEMA Disaster Relief Fund.
It angered GOP hardliners who opposed adding unrelated political applications to what they believed would be a simpler extension of government funding.
Johnson too tried and failed to meet Trump’s demand to combine action on the debt limit — which was put on hold until January 2025 — with his government funding bill, after 38 House Republicans and all but a few Democrats two voted against.
Fallon told Fox News Digital that it didn’t necessarily mean they would challenge Trump if he re-endorsed Johnson before Jan. 3.
“Some of the people in ’38, this was more of a principled thing, they really want to attack the debt,” Fallon said. “They were willing to let the debt ceiling stick for two years; they like to use that as a bargaining tool to say, ‘Let’s lower the debt-to-GDP ratio.’
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But one of Johnson’s biggest critics, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has already told reporters he won’t vote for Johnson next year.
Two others, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Harris, R-Md., and Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, suggested they were no longer committed to supporting Johnson over the weekend.
Meanwhile, there have been media reports that Trump is unhappy with Johnson’s handling of government funding and that his demand for the debt limit was not met.
Trump himself has not mentioned Johnson publicly since Friday’s vote. But Trump’s top allies, such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, have come to Johnson’s defense.
It took 15 rounds of voting for former president Kevin McCarthy to win the gavel (Valerie Plesch)
“He’s without a doubt the most conservative Speaker of the House that we’ve had in our lifetime,” Cruz said on his “The Verdict” podcast. “If Mike Johnson is ousted as Speaker of the House, we’re going to end up with a Speaker of the House who is much, much more liberal than Mike Johnson.”
Others have also pointed out that Trump’s influence will have a lot to do with what ultimately happens.
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one Republican House granted anonymity to speak freely told Fox News Digital earlier last week that they were considering opposing Johnson, but said Trump would be the final deciding factor.
“I think ultimately it’s going to come down to who President Trump likes, because I think that’s going to have a lot of influence on the decision-making, because, right now, President Trump works really well with Mike Johnson. They have a great relationship.” , Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Asked if he would support Johnson if Trump did, despite opposing his government funding plans, Burchett said “Possibly.”
Johnson will head into the Jan. 3 speaker vote with just a slim three-vote GOP margin, and is virtually unlikely to win Democratic support.
