A look at Mike Johnson and the troubled history of Republican speakers : NPR

Table Of Content

• Hern is making calls to gauge interest in him running for speaker
• America's Car Insurance Crisis Is Getting Worse
• Watch: Meet the Republicans who are Trump's likely successors
• Hold on, here’s why Trump can’t become House speaker – for now
• Right Wingers Push for Alleged Felon to Become New House Speaker
• Does the Speaker of the House Need To Be a Member of Congress?
• Trump endorses key Capitol Hill ally, Jim Jordan, for House speaker

Aside from Trump, Representative Jim Jordan has already expressed his interest in being the next speaker and has received some support, including from Representative Matt Gaetz. While some Trump acolytes within the House GOP have openly expressed their willingness for Trump to take the gavel, the former president seems ambivalent based on his presidential prospects and being inundated with myriad legal cases. Some members have suggested that former president Donald Trump should pursue the speakership, at least on an interim basis. The U.S. Constitution does not require the House speaker to be a member of the chamber. "The idea for some that Donald Trump could become the speaker of the House is almost as frightening as the idea of him becoming president again," said Democratic strategist Karen Finney.

Hern is making calls to gauge interest in him running for speaker

"Can you just imagine Nancy Pelosi having to hand that gavel to Donald J. Trump?" mused Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a vocal Trump loyalist, when he spoke to a crowd in Iowa this summer. "She didn't like when that Jan. 6 guy was sitting in her chair in her office. She is sure not going to like seeing Donald Trump sitting in her chair." Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones said Trump should be put forward for the job as a “litmus test on these Republicans” in the House—to see who will stand with him. “The only candidate for Speaker I am currently supporting is President Donald J. Trump,” MAGA bomb-thrower Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia tweeted.

America's Car Insurance Crisis Is Getting Worse

Buck said Sunday that he is not supporting a candidate until Republicans reach an agreement on government spending. Lawmakers last month passed a temporary deal to avoid a government shutdown, but the nation will face a shutdown again next month if Congress can’t come up with a longer-term spending deal. On Tuesday, Nehls was not among the rightwingers who voted to remove McCarthy.

Watch: Meet the Republicans who are Trump's likely successors

Since McCarthy has vowed not to run again for the speakership, many House Republicans and conservative commentators have thrown Trump's name into the conversation. The Republicans who voted to remove McCarthy aside from Gaetz were Andy Biggs of Arizona, Ken Buck of Colorado, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Eli Crane of Arizona, Bob Good of Virginia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Matt Rosendale of Montana. Donald Trump has broken his silence about the currently vacant speaker position in the House of Representatives. Saying no would anger their MAGA base, but saying yes would risk turning off swing voters who are exhausted with the former president. And then there's the appeal of State of the Union night, when he would get to stand behind Biden, just like the current House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stood behind Trump when he was president. "Well, I've heard the talk and it's getting more and more, but it's not something that I would have considered. But it is — certainly there's a lot of talk about it," the former president said.

Former New York Assistant Attorney General Tristan Snell wrote on X that House Republicans' own rules require a leader to step aside if indicted for a felony of two-plus years of prison. House Republican conference rule 26 says a member of the Republican leadership must vacate his or her position if they have been indicted on felony charges that carry sentences of two or more years of imprisonment. The speakership is a job filled with constant tasks both big and small. "It requires that you actually get to the office at a reasonable hour and deal with the kinds of factional disputes that he would rather fuel, rather than settle," said C.

Yesterday, he was making calls seeking to shore up support for a bid to succeed McCarthy, two lawmakers who have spoken with him said. He also huddled privately with members of the 25-person Texas GOP delegation — the largest in the Republican Conference. Two days after he was ousted, the McCarthy nameplate outside his old office still has not come down. "Jim Jordan is the definition of a solid conservative and a truly effective leader, and I am proud to publicly express my strong support for him to become the next Speaker of the House," Hageman wrote on the social platform X. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., who defeated Liz Cheney in the GOP primary for Wyoming's congressional seat last year, said she supports Jordan for speaker. NBC News reported today that Trump is considering a visit to the U.S.

Right Wingers Push for Alleged Felon to Become New House Speaker

Trump is inserting himself into the messy race to become the next House speaker. Will it matter? - The Associated Press

Trump is inserting himself into the messy race to become the next House speaker. Will it matter?.

Posted: Sat, 07 Oct 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Wright had only been in the job a little over two years at the time. Longworth's successor, John "Cactus Jack" Garner of Texas, left the office after just over a year to be Franklin Roosevelt's first vice president. Gingrich managed to restore many of the powers of the speakership but clashed repeatedly with Clinton and even with Republican leaders in the Senate.

Does the Speaker of the House Need To Be a Member of Congress?

That higher threshold vexed McCarthy in January, when it took him 15 rounds and a lot of political capital to win the coveted gavel. The House GOP conference will have a meeting Monday evening as members wrestle with who to elect as speaker. On Tuesday, House Republicans will host their own private forum to hear pitches directly from the candidates. Then on Wednesday, Republicans will hold their closed-door, secret-ballot election for speaker. Once someone wins a simple majority of the 221 GOP lawmakers, that person will become the party’s nominee. Johnson is the sixth Republican elevated to the speakership since 1994, the year the party won its first House majority and elected a speaker of its own for the first time in 40 years.

Trump endorses key Capitol Hill ally, Jim Jordan, for House speaker

After ousting a House speaker for the first time in history — and watching another candidate drop out — Republicans are scrambling to rally around a replacement, not an easy task at a time when the party is deeply fractured. If the Republicans take the House back in the 2022 midterm elections, they get to pick a speaker, and there's no requirement that the speaker has to be an elected representative. After Kevin McCarthy failed to win enough votes to become House speaker on Tuesday, former President Donald J. Trump held a call with Mr. McCarthy and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, one of the key Republican members of Congress blocking Mr. McCarthy’s bid.

After Trump left office, party leaders still indulged his fantasy that he had “really” won the 2020 election. Attempts to substitute Ron DeSantis or Nikki Haley as the 2024 nominee sputtered and failed. Asked whether Wednesday was a realistic time frame for choosing a speaker, Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., who is serving temporarily in the role, told reporters he would "have an announcement from conference on a schedule today." But that GOP nominee still must receive 217 votes — a simple majority of the full House of Representatives — to be elected speaker on the House floor.

Even if that threshold were to change to three members, or five, the blockade of opposition to Jordan this week has shown plenty of political will among centrist Republicans, enough to force a vote if Speaker Trump were to seriously step out of line. The American public wouldn’t have to wait around for the next presidential election, or for yet another doomed-to-fail impeachment. Additionally, it’s possible that at least one of the reasons Trump is running for president is to keep himself out of prison. If he’s convicted of any of the counts of criminal conduct he faces, he’ll want someone in the White House who’s friendly to the idea of a pardon. Right now, he’s betting on himself, but a wobbly dead-heat rematch might not be as sound as, say, a Haley nomination, at least according to those polls. As House speaker, Trump could whip the political clout of an entire conference behind the candidate most likely to beat Biden (in exchange for assurance of pardon, presumably).

He also got strong support in the Senate, where even an outright majority of Republicans voted for the aid on Tuesday. The package was signed into law by President Biden the following day. Just such a "motion to vacate the chair" was filed against Johnson in March by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. But Greene has yet to make the motion "privileged," which under the rules would necessitate a vote within two days. To critics, Trump’s preoccupation with crime is a racial dog whistle.

The business soon became involved in variety of projects, including hotels, resorts, residential and commercial building, casinos, and golf courses. When questioned on whether he himself was interested in running for the position, McHenry just shook his head and sighed. But hours after announcing the forum, it was canceled when all three men said they would not participate. Two sources familiar with the matter confirmed said that Scalise and Jordan spoke and agreed it would not be a good idea.

In January, Gaetz voted for Trump as House Speaker during one of the rounds of voting. "This week, when the U.S. House of Representatives reconvenes, my first order of business will be to nominate Donald J. Trump for Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives," Nehls said in a statement. "President Trump, the greatest President of my lifetime, has a proven record of putting America First and will make the House great again." Party rules would need to be modified to allow Trump to serve, which would again require a simple house majority.

Diana Schaub, a political science professor at Loyola University Maryland, has argued that the framers of the Constitution probably didn’t think anyone would ever try to elect a non-member. So there is at least a chance the Supreme Court might weigh in and rule the move illegitimate, if Trump actually went for it. And now, after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s historic leadership implosion following an unprecedented vote for his ouster led by right-wing firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, some in the right-wing political system are saying Trump is the man for the job.

They lost the Senate in 2021 because Trump fatigue cost them two seats in Georgia. They lost Senate seats and governorships in 2022 because they put forward Trump-branded candidates such as Blake Masters and Kari Lake in Arizona and Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania. Here is the issue on which traditional Republican belief in U.S. global leadership clashes most directly with Trump’s peculiar and sinister enthusiasm for Vladimir Putin’s Russia. And on this issue, the traditional Republicans have now won and Trump’s peculiar enthusiasm got beat.