House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted Tuesday morning that he has the House under control and a rosy future ahead of him. “I plan to lead this conference in the future,” Johnson told reporters, adding that he has “plans for the next Congress.”
Good luck with that, Mr. Speaker.
Johnson hopes hinge on the continued support of Donald Trump, and we all know how that goes.
The harsh reality for Johnson is that he has failed at everything the speaker is supposed to do—raise money, hold the majority, pass legislation, and keep the caucus focused on the party’s agenda. Instead, he delivered a failed impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The months-long effort to impeach President Joe Biden is in shambles. The only way Johnson has been able to pass critical legislation is by relying on Democrats, and he’s overseen an ever-shrinking Republican majority. He’s also far behind his immediate predecessor Kevin McCarthy in fundraising. The odds of Republicans holding the majority after November’s election are vanishingly small.
To top it all off, Johnson is continuing to negotiate with terrorists, holding a second meeting in two days with GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie, the agitators behind a motion to oust him. Johnson insists that “it’s not a negotiation … I hear suggestions and ideas and thoughts from members. My door has been open from Day One.”
But that’s not what Greene believes.
“I have high expectations, and they have to be met in full,” she said Tuesday. “There is no middle ground. There is no compromise.”
Greene is demanding an end to aid for Ukraine; a promise that Johnson will abide by the “Hastert Rule,” requiring he get the support from a majority of the House GOP on any legislation before bringing it to the floor; a promise that he’ll defund the special counsel probes into Trump in the appropriations for next year; and that he abides by the so-called “Massie Rule,” to make automatic across-the-board cuts if Congress doesn’t come to a funding agreement before a set deadline.
That’s setting the stage for yet another government shutdown fight in September, just weeks ahead of the election. The Senate and the White House certainly won’t agree to defunding Special Counsel Jack Smith, much less the funding cuts she’s insisting upon.
Nevertheless, Johnson told reporters Tuesday he’s considering defunding the Justice Department’s probe into Trump.
“We’re looking very intently at it because I think the problem has reached a crescendo,” he said.
Of course he is. He has to if he’s going to keep Trump on his side.
All of this is giving other Republicans bad flashbacks to the fiasco McCarthy created by giving in to the demands of the maniacs.
“We got in trouble [in] January 2023, right? And we may have paid way too much, and I think for right now I would be very careful,” Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska told reporters after Tuesday’s GOP conference meeting.
“I don’t have a problem with him listening. What I will have a problem with … is when you start making special deals, side deals, hidden deals, behind-the closed-door deals. And then not just conservatives but moderates, say: ‘Well, what about my deal,’” Republican Study Committee Chair Kevin Hern of Oklahoma added.
Johnson should be taking the McCarthy warning to heart. He might also benefit from looking back to former Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner, who were essentially chased out after trying and failing to meet Freedom Caucus demands.
He might think he’s the anointed one who can navigate this path to victory, but Johnson is setting himself up for a humiliating fall.
RELATED STORIES:
GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson just can’t win
Democrats might stop the House speaker’s ouster—and they won’t let him forget it
Marjorie Taylor Greene makes a mess of House GOP’s big impeachment day
