House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office told Breitbart News exclusively that he intends to remain as Speaker of the House after he cast the deciding vote against ending the deep state’s warrantless surveillance of American citizens on Friday.
Johnson, who is now rushing down to Mar-a-Lago to hope former President Donald Trump gives him a lifeline, is facing serious questions as to whether or not he can continue in the position after a string of major policy failures on his watch. Johnson intends to hold a press conference with Trump to unveil a messaging bill meant to stop illegal aliens from voting. The proposal is not serious, and stands no chance in the Senate. Using Trump like this, as a shield with a messaging bill that is not serious, has rubbed lots of Trump-aligned movement leaders the wrong way in a big way.
“He’s not resigning,” Raj Shah, the Speaker’s spokesman, told Breitbart News when asked about rumors that he was considering leaving the post. “No,” Shah reiterated when asked if Johnson was considering stepping down.
It’s worth noting staffers to Speakers of the House regularly behave like this in the end times for their bosses. Back in September 2015, literally the night before he announced he was resigning, the spokeswoman for then-Speaker John Boehner told Breitbart News he was not stepping down.
“This is ridiculous and your sources are wrong,” Emily Schillinger, the then-spokeswoman for then-Speaker Boehner told Breitbart News on Sept. 24, 2015, when Breitbart News reported that anti-Boehner forces had cobbled together enough GOP supporters to oust him from the Speakership. The next day, Boehner announced he would resign.
In Johnson’s case, he is in a much more tenuous position than Boehner ever was. Beginning with lackluster fundraising numbers in the first quarter—he only raised $20 million as compared with much more that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy had raised in similar timeframes—and continuing through a string of policy mishaps from government funding failures to mistakes on government surveillance and next up a contentious push to try to jam conservatives with more foreign aid to places like Ukraine. What’s more, Johnson has a far slimmer margin than Boehner ever did and is staring down the barrel of a possible motion-to-vacate effort from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and others. While Greene has not introduced the measure as a privileged motion that would require a House vote, that possibility remains on the table and as Johnson continues making mistakes and courting controversy the likelihood of that happening from Greene or another Republican only increases.
Asked if Team Johnson was emulating Team Boehner on purpose or by accident, Shah said: “Not emulating anyone.”
Republicans across the House GOP conference, from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to Greg Steube (R-FL) and more, have been ripping Johnson after he cast the deciding vote against a bipartisan amendment to the renewal package for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) section 702 that would have required federal law enforcement officials to get a warrant to surveil Americans.
This is how the Constitution dies.
By a tie vote, the amendment to require a warrant to spy on Americans goes down in flames.
This is a sad day for America.
The Speaker doesn’t always vote in the House, but he was the tie breaker today. He voted against warrants. pic.twitter.com/i49GnCzyPm
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 12, 2024
A Republican Speaker voting against warrant requirements for American citizens after this very process was blatantly abused to spy on @realDonaldTrump and his campaign is beyond the pale.
— Congressman Greg Steube (@RepGregSteube) April 12, 2024
For their part, Johnson’s lackeys have argued he wasn’t the deciding vote since he voted earlier in the roll call and Rep. Marianette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) cast her vote later than Johnson did his—but oftentimes Speakers do not vote and Johnson decided to weigh in on this particular provision to throw his weight behind defeating this amendment in a tie vote. Shah sent Breitbart News this tweet from Turning Point’s Charlie Kirk to argue that he was not the final vote on it:
Clarification: Mariannette Miller-Meeks was the final vote. Speaker Mike Johnson voted earlier. I'm told they did not whip votes on the amendment on warrantless surveillance.
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) April 12, 2024
In Massie’s comments, he literally said what Johnson did on Friday by casting the deciding vote here was akin to setting the U.S. Constitution ablaze. Breitbart News asked Johnson’s office about this, specifically this question: “Does Mike Johnson have shame for lighting the Constitution on fire?”
“The question is off base,” Shah replied. “He has a disagreement over the warrant amendment with others.”
While things certainly look terrible for Johnson at this time, and his grip on the speakership is as weak as any modern speaker’s ever has been, he might just survive if only because Republicans literally have nobody else who can get there. Everyone else in the current leadership team—Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Majority Whip Tom Emmer—tried and failed to win the Speakership back in October. House Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) got the closest to the gavel after McCarthy’s ouster, but a group of 25 intransigents—many of whom are dropping like flies either not running for reelection or headed for the exits now—blocked Jordan in three successive House floor votes.
Rep. Jim Jordan, (R-OH), center, the Republican nominee for speaker of the House, is seen on the House floor of the U.S. Capitol after he did not receive enough votes to become speaker on Tuesday, October 17, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty)
Johnson has always been in a very tough position since he first won the job, and the number of Republicans in the chamber has only dwindled since then, further weakening his grip. If House Republicans were to oust him, it could end up with Democrats possibly retaking the chamber before the upcoming election in November and with House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) taking the gavel. Some Republicans have privately griped that they do not see much of a difference in how Jeffries would run things and how Johnson is currently running things, and ditching the burden of governance for the time being might help the GOP in the upcoming election.
Regardless of how this all shakes out, though, the chaos surrounding House Republicans is not a good factor for their efforts to hold or even add to their majority in November. But things are not as bad electorally as they might look, as the list of battleground districts that could determine the party that controls the majority is heavily slanted to the GOP.
Another thing to watch will be how Trump handles all of this. Whether Trump embraces Johnson warmly, or he distances himself from Johnson’s repeated failures and mistakes, could determine Johnson’s future or lack thereof. The first evidence of that will likely play out on Friday afternoon as the two of them hold a joint press conference. But the fact of the matter is while Trump himself is being gracious in extending that opportunity to Johnson, the speaker is on a very, very, very short leash right now and Trump world may cut him loose sooner rather than later depending on what negatives Johnson brings into Trump’s orbit. Trump is currently performing very strongly in the presidential election—his entire focus at the moment is defeating Democrat President Joe Biden and retaking the White House—so any baggage Johnson offloads onto him could become a burden too bulky to bear.
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