The Speaker’s Race
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Sometimes, i just hate the ridiculous GOP House. What the FUCK are they hoping to accomplish?
So, what happens if Johnson gets voted down Friday? He needs 218 votes for an outright majority. Republican Congressman Thomas Massie is a solid no and isn't changing his vote. Only two Republican members have to vote against Johnson for him to lose the Speaker's gavel. The timing of the vote could cause major headaches for the incoming Trump administration.
The House cannot operate without a Speaker. That vote occurs Friday, January 3. The vote to certify the 2024 presidential election is just three days later on January 6. When Republicans ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, it took three weeks to get to a consensus around then Congressman Mike Johnson, who ultimately became the Speaker. Past elections have lasted for months.
But there are only two weeks between January 6 and January 20. If the House can't find a Speaker in time to get the election certified, President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance cannot take office even though President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will leave their posts.
With a non-functioning House, Trump, Vance and the House Speaker are out of the chain-of-command, which puts the Senate pro tempore in as acting president. On January 20, 2025, that will be Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.
"Article One, Section Three of the U.S. Constitution designates the vice president of the United States serves as the presiding officer of the upper chamber of congress. However typically, the Vice President does not preside over all senate business, and a pro tempore, or placeholder, oversees the daily business of the chamber," the Northern Iowan reports. "As the president pro tempore, this position will also place the senior Iowa senator into the presidential line of succession, meaning he would become the president of the United States in the event the President, vice president and speaker of the House of Representatives could not discharge their duties. The role traditionally has been given to the senior-most member of the majority party."
So, it's all about simple math and timing. Trump took to Truth Social Monday in an effort to avoid the scenario and endorsed Johnson for Speaker -- telling Republicans not to blow it.
Time for President-Elect Trump to jawbone.
"Nice highway program your state has. It would be a shame if..."
@George-K said in The Speaker’s Race:
Time for President-Elect Trump to jawbone.
You would think, if it’s only one or two, he could bring hell down on them by visiting the district with Elon and crew and talking about how they’re blocking
what 49.9% of the country voted forthe entire MAGA program, and thus doing Kamala’s bidding. -
@Jolly said in The Speaker’s Race:
He's right, isn't he?
There are 12 sentences in the tweet. Let me count the untruths.
- 2
- 2
- Sure, by his campaign team
- Unclear and don’t feel like looking into it
- 1
- 1
- 0
- No statements of fact to be evaluated
- Opinion
- 0
- Prediction can’t be evaluated for truth (though it’s unlikely)
- True
- No statement of fact to be evaluated
@jon-nyc said in The Speaker’s Race:
@Jolly said in The Speaker’s Race:
He's right, isn't he?
There are 12 sentences in the tweet. Let me count the untruths.
- 2
- 2
- Sure, by his campaign team
- Unclear and don’t feel like looking into it
- 1
- 1
- 0
- No statements of fact to be evaluated
- Opinion
- 0
- Prediction can’t be evaluated for truth (though it’s unlikely)
- True
- No statement of fact to be evaluated
Maybe, but I still thought his statement was good enough. 🥱. Trump can be overt in his lies, Biden can be covert.
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@jon-nyc said in The Speaker’s Race:
@Jolly said in The Speaker’s Race:
He's right, isn't he?
There are 12 sentences in the tweet. Let me count the untruths.
- 2
- 2
- Sure, by his campaign team
- Unclear and don’t feel like looking into it
- 1
- 1
- 0
- No statements of fact to be evaluated
- Opinion
- 0
- Prediction can’t be evaluated for truth (though it’s unlikely)
- True
- No statement of fact to be evaluated
Maybe, but I still thought his statement was good enough. 🥱. Trump can be overt in his lies, Biden can be covert.
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https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/house-speaker-vote-johnson-2025
Mike Johnson was re-elected House speaker on the first ballot after some late drama, with President-elect Donald Trump forced to step in. Two Republicans changed their votes after initially opposing the incumbent.
Three House Republicans—Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Keith Self of Texas—had initially denied Johnson a majority by voting for someone else. But Norman and Self switched their votes, giving the win to Johnson.
Trump spoke by phone with Norman and Self after the initial voting--telling them to stop the nonsense and back Johnson, according to people familiar with the discussions. Johnson didn’t agree to any specific concessions, a Republican lawmaker said.
Several hard-right House Republicans said in a letter they only voted for Johnson to make sure the chamber was ready to certify Trump as president in the coming days: “We did this despite our sincere reservations regarding the Speaker’s track record.”
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I think it might be a wee bit difficult for Johnson to buck Trump…
The Brad
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I think it might be a wee bit difficult for Johnson to buck Trump…
@LuFins-Dad said in The Speaker’s Race:
I think it might be a wee bit difficult for Johnson to buck Trump…
Johnson’s not really the problem. It’ll be the one or two outliers.
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@Mik said in The Speaker’s Race:
Like I said, Trump learned a lot in his first term and since.
I don’t know. They haven’t really displayed that yet. Trump and his buddies still talk regularly about grand changes that would require bipartisan majorities but the tactical approach seems to be corral the GOP and go it alone. That will get you a budget-like thing (CR, whatever) and even a tax cut but nothing else.
I don’t think Thune is planning a complete overhaul of Senate rules.
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It's certainly hard to imagine Donald Trump bullshitting extravagantly.
And what was there to learn? His first Presidency was the greatest in the history of the country. His words, not mine, so it must be true.
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https://apnews.com/article/house-intelligence-committee-speaker-0a28ddc03b3944b4d459f7ff5f0278bd
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday removed the GOP chairman of the powerful House Intelligence Committee, who was a vocal supporter of assistance for Ukraine and held other views that put him at odds with President-elect Donald Trump.
Johnson told reporters late Wednesday that Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, would no longer lead the committee, which oversees the nation’s intelligence agencies and holds tremendous influence over law enforcement and foreign policy.
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Gotta purge the Reaganites.
The funny thing is he tells Turner there’s too many headwinds from mar a lago then smiles to the camera and says ‘it’s a House decision’ and went on about what a great job Turner did.
I don’t know about you guys, but I don’t remember firing anyone who was doing a great job.
