Weakened House GOP reckons with Johnson’s leadership
than six months after a faction of House Republicans led a revolt that removed Kevin McCarthy from the speakership, more Republicans are complaining about the party’s direction and questioning whether his replacement, House Speaker Mike Johnson, is the right person for the job.
The complaints picked up after the House passage Friday of a $1.2 trillion funding bill and they are familiar ones for the chamber, similar to those that had been lodged against McCarthy: Both men have relied on Democrats to pass key funding bills in the narrowly divided chamber and bypassed rules to move the process along more quickly when facing key legislative deadlines.
The speed of their disenchantment with Johnson is a reminder of the difficulty of leading the restive Republican caucus, which has been shrinking due to member departures. On Friday, Representative Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin announced he would resign next month to join the private sector, leaving Johnson with just one vote to spare to get measures passed on party lines.
At the same time, the Republican Party faces deep divisions over how to handle major policy issues and whether to ever work with Democrats.
Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus have already admonished Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, as a weak leader who they believe does not fight back in negotiations with Senate majority leader Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York.
“Mike was wrong,” Representative Chip Roy of Texas, who vehemently opposed his rightflank peers’ effort to oust McCarthy last year, told CNN’s Jake Tapper on Sunday, describing Johnson’s approach to steering a $1.2 trillion funding bill that passed the House, 286 to 134, on Friday, with the support of 185 Democrats and 101 Republicans.
The majority of House GOP members — 112 — voted against it, meaning it only passed because of Democratic support, a source of tension for many conservative members.
Johnson, Roy said, did not give House Republicans the 72 hours required by the rules negotiated by the party’s most conservative members to review the measure, which passed the Senate early Saturday and was swiftly signed by President Biden, averting a partial shutdown of the government.
Roy also insisted that the speaker should have forced a continuing resolution to keep the government funded at current levels while House Republicans continued pushing for further border funding and budget cuts in the final bills. (Roy and other Freedom Caucus members had said publicly they would vote against the package even if Johnson had followed the 72hour rule, and condemned and routinely voted against continuing resolutions, including some that included House Republicans’ border security proposal.)
“It is what it is. It’s a very difficult job for the speaker,” Roy conceded. “I knew I wouldn’t get everything I wanted. But you know what I wanted? I wanted some sense of sanity on spending, some sense of sanity on the border, some sense of sanity on any of the issues the American people actually care about. And we got none of that.”
Johnson, for his part, called the agreement passed on Friday “the best achievable outcome in a divided government,” pointing out conservative policy wins.
The bill package that was secured on Friday funds about three-quarters of the federal government for the next six months, while also raising military pay, eliminating funding for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and bolstering security at the Mexico border.
Despite the sharp criticism, Republicans so far seem relucdates tant to try to push Johnson out of out of office like they did with McCarthy, potentially giving Johnson time to shore up his support.
Before the funding package passed the House, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a far-right member, filed a motion to vacate the speakership over opposition to the bill, the same legislative procedure that has been used to remove McCarthy.
But Greene characterized the motion as “more of a warning” to Johnson and has not committed to a timeline to commit to a vote.
Over the weekend, Republicans appeared dismissive of Greene’s effort, signaling that they were not yet compelled to remove him from speakership. Lawmakers said that the calculus to consider whether to remove Johnson now is markedly different from what it was when more than 200 Democrats and eight Republicans ousted McCarthy last year.
“We don’t need dysfunction right now with the world on fire the way it is,” Representative Michael McCaul, a Texas Republican who chairs of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told CBS News on Sunday. “We need to govern, and that is not just for Republicans but in a bipartisan way.”
The divisions that continue to plague the fractious conference are the latest examples of frustration for House Republicans.
Data from GovTrack reviewed by The Washington Post last month indicated that the current Congress had enacted about 7 percent of the legislation that the legislative body has enacted on average since the 1973-74 session. Efforts to continue funding the federal government have repeatedly teetered on the brink of funding deadlines, largely due to resistance from the far-right flank. A GOP-led impeachment inquiry into Biden is sputtering out.
WASHINGTON POST
Murphy won’t seek seat of N.J. Democrat Menendez
WASHINGTON — Tammy Murphy has suspended her campaign to replace Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey, a Democrat, as he faces federal corruption charges.
Murphy announced her decision in a video posted to her social media on Sunday.
“New Jersey's next senator must focus on the issues of our time and not be mired in tearing others down while dividing the people of our party and state,” she said.
Her decision to drop out probably will clear the way for US Representative Andy Kim in the Democratic primary on June 4.
Menendez announced that he would not run in that primary but did not rule out seeking reelection as an independent as he faces federal corruption charges,
Murphy, a first-time candidate, was running with the backing of influential Democratic figures. Kim, a three-term congressman, has centered his campaign in part on upending the state’s unique ballot design, widely viewed as favoring candiLess preferred by county party insiders.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Seditionist’s son will run in Mont. as a Democrat
KALISPELL, Mont. — The eldest son of one of America’s most infamous seditionists is building a new life since breaking free from his father's control — juggling work, college classes, and volunteer firefighting.
And Dakota Adams has tossed one more ball in the air this year: a Democratic campaign for Montana's Legislature.
He also plans to sell the rifles, body armor, and tactical gear he used to wear to antigovernment protests alongside his father: Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers. It's all part of an effort to push away the last vestiges of what Adams describes as an isolating and abusive upbringing that nearly ruined him, his mother, and his siblings.
“I decided that I’m going to double down on betting on the electoral process,” Adams said in a recent interview.
Adams knows it won’t be easy running as a Democrat for the House in the deep-red northwestern corner of Montana. The district covers northern Lincoln County, a mecca for militia members or sympathizers and doomsday preppers. Republican Donald Trump won 74 percent of the county vote in the 2020 presidential race.
Although Adams’s campaign may look like a fruitless undertaking, he doesn't see it that way. For him it’s a chance to tell his own story — that of an “honest weirdo” who emerged from a traumatic childhood to find his own way in life. It’s also a chance to make the case for his own vision of how democracy and personal responsibility intertwine.
Win or lose, Adams’s campaign is built on his belief that people sympathetic to extremist groups might be open to seeing things differently.
ASSOCIATED PRESS