The brand new US Congress was thrown into chaos on its first day Friday as insurgent right-wing Republicans defied incoming president Donald Trump to dam Mike Johnson from returning as speaker of the Home of Representatives.
The Louisiana congressman — who was boosted by a number of messages of help from Trump — wanted a easy majority to be elected as Washington’s high legislator, who presides over Home enterprise and is second in line to the presidency.
However divided Republicans did not elect a speaker within the first spherical of voting — elevating fears of a repeat of the chaos of the final two years of their Home rule — after a nail-biting poll that earned blanket protection throughout US tv networks.
The vote marked one other embarrassment for Trump, who was proven the bounds of his sway over Home Republicans for a second time after they rebuffed his calls for for a suspension of the nation’s borrowing restrict in December.
Additionally Learn | Congress convenes for Home speaker vote: Mike Johnson’s re-election up for competition; what occurs subsequent
Trump’s looming presidential inauguration raises the stakes of the speakership battle, for the reason that Home can do nothing till its chief is set — together with finishing the certification of the 78-year-old Republican’s victory, set for Monday.
The competition now goes to a second spherical, however Johnson dangers shedding Trump’s help if that battle drags out, which might possible immediate average Republicans to start out casting round for different choices.
Johnson wanted 218 votes within the decrease chamber, the place the Republican majority narrowed to 219-215 as Trump was despatched again to the White Home in final 12 months’s historic presidential election.
– Nobody’s first alternative –
Trump threw his full weight behind his man early Friday with a social media put up wishing him “Good luck” and “very near having 100% help.”
Johnson sought to appease conservatives within the hours earlier than the vote by pledging to “cut back the scale and scope of the federal authorities, maintain the paperwork accountable, and transfer the US to a extra sustainable fiscal trajectory.”
However the 52-year-old legal professional fell quick — having did not deliver occasion rebels, who embody a number of high-profile Trump allies, into line.
Johnson’s behavior of crossing the aisle to chop offers with the Democrats angered conservatives within the 2023-25 session, whereas fiscal hawks lined as much as assault him for what they noticed as weak point on the deficit.
Johnson truly received the vote by 216 to Democratic minority chief Hakeem Jeffries’ 215 — and there may be little or no doubt a Republican will finally declare the speaker’s gavel — however he fell in need of a majority after three of his members determined to not again him.
Johnson was a digital unknown to the broader public earlier than changing into speaker however got here to Trump’s consideration when he spearheaded efforts in Congress to overturn the 2020 election.
Removed from his occasion’s first alternative, the legal professional and spiritual rights campaigner received the gavel in 2023 largely as a result of he lacked the enemies on his personal aspect that prompted the downfall of different Republicans.
He already had one Republican “no” on the scoreboard going into Friday’s vote, from Kentucky’s Thomas Massie, whereas a handful of different conservative hard-liners had publicly declared themselves open to a change on the high.
– ‘Uninterested in voting’ –
Johnson “was solely electable the primary time as a result of he hadn’t held any kind of management place, nor had he ever fought for something, so nobody disliked him and everybody was uninterested in voting,” Massie posted on X.
“He received by being the least objectionable candidate, and he not possesses that title.”
The final time it took a couple of spherical of voting to choose a speaker firstly of a brand new Congress was the final time the physique opened for a brand new session, in January 2023. Earlier than that it final occurred a century in the past, in 1923.
Failure in subsequent rounds would open the trail for a possible rearguard motion from anti-Johnson conservatives, and cloak-and-dagger talks between the 2 events that would see the emergence of a consensus Republican backed by Democrats.
No credible Republican different for spherical two had but been floated publicly.
The obvious can be Home Whip Steve Scalise, a loyal Trumpist who has been clear previously that he has ambitions of his personal, though he has suffered well being points.
The occasion’s proper fringe is more likely to see Scalise as extra of the identical, nonetheless, and rejected him together with whip Tom Emmer when Kevin McCarthy finally prevailed in 2023. Their candidate would possible be Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan.
