Live updates: Rep Mike Johnson of Louisiana elected speaker of the House

Table Of Content

• Rogers storms out of GOP meeting, rips 'eight traitors' who voted to oust McCarthy
• Williams, Green out of speaker race after second ballot as Republicans move to third round of voting
• Emmer believed Trump's post would lose him more votes, source says
• Santos praises Scalise upon withdrawal from race, a reversal from earlier comments
• Republican lawmaker laments fight impeding ability to help in Israel and Gaza
• Jewish student protesters say antisemitism is being weaponized against them

Scalise had been the party's first nominee after McCarthy was ousted, but withdrew his name one day after winning the internal GOP vote. Trump seemed to acknowledge his role in killing Emmer's quest for the gavel, as he shared on his social media platform an article from Politico about how the former president "torpedoed" the bid. 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. The brief claimed that the officials and courts in each of the battleground states unconstitutionally usurped the power granted to state legislators by changing election rules in 2020. If all 221 Republicans and 212 Democrats mark themselves present, Johnson will need 217 votes to win the gavel.

Rogers storms out of GOP meeting, rips 'eight traitors' who voted to oust McCarthy

Government funding expires on Nov. 17 and the House and Senate will need to pass a compromise package in order to prevent a shutdown. The government has been operating under 2023 funding levels for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. The legislation would fund military construction and agriculture programs, as well as programs focused on transportation and housing. The bill makes up only three of the dozen appropriations bills Congress has to pass for the new fiscal year. The agreement ends weeks of paralysis related to this government funding measure after a number of Senate Republicans objected to lumping the bills together instead of considering them individually.

Williams, Green out of speaker race after second ballot as Republicans move to third round of voting

Mr. Johnson had been in touch with the president’s team on his myriad legal challenges seeking to overturn the results, “to restore the integrity of our election process,” according to a Facebook post by Mr. Johnson recounting the exchange. 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. “This affirms the path that we took,” Representative Bob Good of Virginia, one of the eight Republicans who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, tells reporters. And the hard-right Republicans who voted to oust Mr. McCarthy, setting into motion the three-week stretch of chaos that left the House without a leader, said Mr. Johnson’s ascension to the top job made their decision to depose the California Republican worth it. The vote put him second in line to the presidency, capping an extraordinary period of twists and turns on Capitol Hill.

Emmer believed Trump's post would lose him more votes, source says

The fact that so many of them backed Donald Trump’s theory of a faulty 2020 election — even after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol — isn’t entirely surprising, since it was a common position among GOP leadership. Scott was voted out in the third round of ballots for the GOP's speaker nomination, Stefanik said in a post on X today. LaMalfa said Republicans are conducting a roll call vote inside their private meeting. Without the support of 26 GOP holdouts, Emmer would fall short of the 217 votes needed for him to get the speaker's gavel. During an internal conference vote, 26 GOP representatives did not vote to back Emmer, according to Rep. Brandon Williams of New York. Some examples people have pointed to, she said, are Emmer's vote in favor of the federal government recognizing same-sex marriage and his vote to certify the 2020 election results.

House speaker Mike Johnson heckled by protesters in tense Columbia campus visit - BBC.com

House speaker Mike Johnson heckled by protesters in tense Columbia campus visit.

Posted: Wed, 24 Apr 2024 21:50:35 GMT [source]

Two seats are vacant due to the resignations of Reps. Chris Stewart, a Republican from Utah, and David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island. But last month, he voted for a Rep. Matt Gaetz amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have cut off all security assistance for Ukraine. That amendment failed, , with a majority of Republicans voting against the amendment. He accused GOP lawmakers of working to find a candidate for speaker who can pass their "extreme litmus test" opposing marriage equality, cutting Social Security and Medicare, and enacting nationwide restrictions on abortion.

McCarthy had provided a succession list to the House Clerk earlier this year in case his seat became vacant. Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., was chosen to be acting House speaker from that list. "I think we need to rip off the Band-Aid," Gaetz said in a Sunday interview on CNN's "State of the Union." "I think we need to move on with new leadership that can be trustworthy." Gaetz had pressured McCarthy not to work with Democrats to avert a shutdown, but the former speaker did anyway and said he chose what was best for America − not his job.

The House passed a resolution in support of Israel in the war against Hamas – the first measure to come to the floor after Speaker Mike Johnson was elected earlier Wednesday following three weeks without a speaker. The Republican-led House voted Wednesday for Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) as its new speaker. Johnson, who served as vice chairman of the House Republican Conference, was the GOP’s fourth nominee for the speakership. The drawn-out and chaotic voting process had left the House effectively closed for business. If no candidate wins a majority, the House will continue to hold votes until one does.

McCarthy did not publicly endorse a candidate when Rep. Jim Jordan and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise vied for the nomination. Jordan lost 20 Republican votes in the first round, and in the final count, he ended up with 200 votes, leaving him shy of the 217 needed for a majority. Rep. Austin Scott has been eliminated from the speaker's race in the third round of voting, according to a tally from Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers.

Jim Jordan falls short a second time; House speaker vote still looms - NBC News

Jim Jordan falls short a second time; House speaker vote still looms.

Posted: Wed, 18 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

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. Instead, he moved quickly to bring up a resolution expressing solidarity and support for Israel. His next order of business, he said, would be addressing what he called the country’s “broken border” with Mexico. He made no mention of the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, or of the impending government shutdown that will begin next month if Congress fails to pass legislation to keep the government funded. Mr. Johnson was only able to emerge as his party’s nominee for speaker this week after three other G.O.P. nominees before him were unable to rally enough support.

Johnson sent a letter to his colleagues on Monday laying out a tentative schedule for how he would approach the next several months' worth of House business. He endorsed a plan to bring up 12 individual spending bills, rather than a single massive piece of legislation to fund executive branch departments. The consideration of individual spending bills was one of the demands made by GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida and other who rebelled against McCarthy when he endorsed a temporary extension of government funding. A member of Congress since 2017, Johnson has no experience in the House leadership, but vowed to hit the ground running and get the House back to work. A government shutdown is fast approaching, and the White House has requested a $106 billion emergency aid package for Israel, Ukraine and other priorities.

On the eve of the Jan. 6 votes, Mr. Johnson had honed his arguments undermining the election to be more palatable. He presented colleagues with arguments they could use to oppose the will of the voters without embracing conspiracy theories and the lies of widespread fraud pushed by Mr. Trump. Mr. Johnson instead faulted the way some states had changed voting procedures during the pandemic, saying it was unconstitutional.

That has happened only 15 times in the chamber’s history, 13 of them before the Civil War. “I voted for Jim Jordan in the conference election yesterday and I remain committed to doing everything I can to help elect him the next Speaker of the House. He is a conservative fighter and a leader who can unite our party,” Banks said in a statement moments after Scalise withdrew. In 1989 Speaker Jim Wright of Texas resigned under pressure following revelations about a book deal the House Ethics Committee saw as circumventing fundraising rules.

In his proposed schedule for the current Congress, Johnson said passing the final version of the NDAA would take place in December. The Senate passed its own version shortly after the House acted, and members from both chambers are now working to reconcile the two versions and craft a consensus bill. Johnson said lawmakers "have a duty to the American people to explain this to them so they understand it well, and we are going to establish a bipartisan debt commission to begin working on this crisis immediately."

Gimenez, former chief of the City of Miami Fire Department, highlighted that both Johnson and McCarthy are the sons of firefighters. Rep. Elise Stefanik, the chair of the House Republican conference, will deliver the speech nominating Johnson for speaker, according to a Republican aide. 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. 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. Shortly after 1 p.m., the House began voting for speaker, with Johnson as the Republican nominee and Jeffries as the Democratic nominee.