Mike Johnson likely to be elected to remain president with the support of Donald Trump

WASHINGTON House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to avoid the same fate his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, suffered two years ago: an embarrassing, drawn-out battle for the speaker's gavel.

A small group of right-wing agitators is threatening to derail Johnson's bid Friday to retain the presidency. It would generally be difficult to recruit an incumbent president. But Republicans hold such a slim majority in the new 119th Congress that just two GOP defectors could keep Johnson from winning the top job for another two years.

Three days ago, Johnson received a big boost when President-elect Donald Trump publicly gave the Louisiana Republican his complete and total support, arguing that Johnson's election would help the GOP-controlled Congress execute his 2025 agenda. The speaker said he spent New Year's Day with Trump at his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago, shortly after a Cybertruck exploded outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas.

But Johnson has already lost one GOP vote; Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky rallies his X colleagues against Johnson, whom he accuses of cutting deals on government spending, aid to Ukraine and the renewal of a powerful surveillance program known as the name Section 702 of FISA.

Lawmakers said the unpredictable Rep. Victoria Spartaz, R-Ind., is also someone to watch; she has not committed to supporting the speaker and is seeking assurances.

I respect and support President Trump, but his support for Mike Johnson is going to work just as well as his support for President Paul Ryan, Massie wrote on X before the new year. We've seen Johnson team up with Democrats to send money to Ukraine, authorize spying on Americans, and blow the budget.

For his part, Johnson says he is confident he will hold the gavel during the public call scheduled for noon Friday, the first vote of the new Congress, when each House member present must vote verbally for the speaker.

Democrats are expected to vote for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York. And almost all Republicans are expected to vote for Johnson, who won his party's nomination for president shortly after the Nov. 5 election.

During an appearance on Fox News on Thursday, Johnson touted Trump's support and warned that any political gamesmanship with the presidency could delay Congress' certification of Trump's election victory on Monday, January 6. The Louisianan also suggested the House could not afford to delay the organization. in the new Congress due to national security threats such as the deadly New Year's Eve attack in New Orleans.

No further business can be transacted until the House has chosen its leader. This means that House committees cannot be convened, bills cannot be introduced, and further votes cannot take place.

We will get there. Look, the things we talked about this morning illustrate that we live in very serious times. We can't afford any palace drama here. We have to start Congress, which starts tomorrow, and we have to get to work immediately, Johnson said on Fox News.

We are scheduled to certify on Monday the January 6 election of President Donald J. Trump. And we have a lot of important things waiting for us right now, so there's no time to waste. We must stay united.

Johnson faces a similar math problem to the one McCarthy faced just two years ago, when a small bloc of conservative rebels led by then-Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla. teamed up with Democrats to prevent McCarthy from winning the gavel. It took 15 rounds of voting over several days and personal phone calls from Trump to convince the Gaetz group to withdraw.

Because of his slim majority, McCarthy would only narrowly win the presidency. But just 269 days later, Gaetz again worked with Democrats to oust McCarthy, setting off an all-out battle to succeed him that paralyzed all House business for three weeks.

In the end, Johnson, then a friendly leader of the No. 7 House GOP with no known enemies, was unanimously elected president after higher-ranking leaders tried and failed.

On Fox, Johnson acknowledged he faced a tough “numbers game.” The Republicans obtained a majority of 220 votes to 215 in November. But Gaetz resigned from office after the election and said he would not be sworn in for the new 119th Congress on Friday, narrowing the GOP advantage to 219-215.

Johnson would need at least 218 votes (a simple majority) to win the gavel if all House members are present Friday.

He said he spent the holidays reaching out to each of his GOP critics. And, he told Fox, he argues that he is the best person for the job and that Republicans who at the end of the month will control all the levers of power in Washington cannot afford to delaying enactment of Trump's legislative agenda, which includes renewing tax cuts and strengthening border security.

He recently told Fox News' Sean Hannity that he had a 45-minute phone call with one of his staunchest critics, Spartaz.

We have a unified government starting tomorrow. “We have in the White House, in the Senate and in the House a totally different situation than we have faced in the last 14 months since I have been president,” Johnson said on Fox. So we were excited to implement the America First program.

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