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The proposed continuing resolution, championed by GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson, would have kept agencies running at current funding levels through to mid-March 2025
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Donald Trump and JD Vance appear to have guaranteed a bitter showdown with Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill after demanding that the House and Senate effectively force the federal government to shut down, rather than pass a stop-gap funding bill championed by GOP House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Johnson’s bipartisan deal would have kept agencies running at current funding levels through to mid-March 2025 but the president-elect and his deputy issued a statement complaining the bill does not address the nation’s statutory debt ceiling, urging the passage of a “streamlined” alternative version “that doesn’t give… the Democrats everything they want.”
The duo was rebuked by the White House, which warned: “Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hard-working Americans and create instability across the country.”
Democrats have meanwhile mocked tech billionaire Elon Musk’s undue influence over the incoming administration, with Senator Bernie Sanders ironically praising “President Elon Musk” on X.
While Trump told Fox News Digital Johnson will “easily remain speaker” he added a caveat reiterating his earlier statement. Among the names floated as potential replacements for Johnson is Musk, with Senator Rand Paul noting the role is not limited to members of Congress.
Donald Trump told Fox News Digital that Mike Johnson will “easily remain speaker” for the next Congress if he “acts decisively and tough” and eliminates “all of the traps being set by Democrats” in the spending package.
“Anybody that supports a bill that doesn’t take care of the Democrat quicksand known as the debt ceiling should be primaried and disposed of as quickly as possible,” the president-elect told the outlet.
“If the speaker acts decisively, and tough, and gets rid of all of the traps being set by the Democrats, which will economically and, in other ways, destroy our country, he will easily remain speaker,” Trump also said, adding a caveat to his apparent endorsement of Johnson.
A vote for the next speaker is scheduled for January 3. Some names have already floated as potential replacements for Johnson, with Rep Thomas Massie saying he won’t support the speaker’s reelection. House Republicans only have a very slim majority to elect a speaker.
In the Senate, independent lawmaker Rand Paul has suggested the next speaker should be Elon Musk, given that the role does not need to be a sitting member of Congress.
GOP Senator Mitt Romney said on Sunday that MAGA Republicanism now wholly dominates the Republican Party, echoing the skepticism of those who have been waiting for some kind of “post-Trump” Republican Party to emerge.
Romney is one of Trump’s most frequent critics in the GOP and voted for the impeachment of the president-elect in 2021. This election cycle, he opted to retire from Congress rather than face an inevitable primary challenge backed by the former-and-future president.
John Bowden reports.
Utah senator, who is soon to step down, says he was ‘wrong’ about assumption Trump would lose 2024 election
Mike Johnson could be challenged for the speaker’s chair in the new year as Republican critics draw up a list of potential replacements, according to reports.
Some rebels in his party are angry at his handling of the stop-gap bill to fund the federal government through March 14, dubbed a “dumpster fire” by some Republicans.
The bipartisan deal was struck on Tuesday evening and lawmakers have until Friday to approve new spending.
Rhian Lubin reports.
Some rebels in the GOP are angry at Johnson’s handling of the stop-gap bill to fund the federal government through March 14
Independent US senator Rand Paul is pushing Elon Musk as a potential speaker of the House, as rumors swirl of an effort to replace Mike Johnson.
Paul noted on X: “The Speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress…”
He continued: “Nothing would disrupt the swamp more than electing Elon Musk … think about it … nothing’s impossible. (not to mention the joy at seeing the collective establishment, aka ‘uniparty,’ lose their ever-lovin’ minds)
Eric Garcia writes:
House Republicans wasted little time following President-elect Trump’s orders to enact his plans for retribution. On Tuesday, the House Administration’s oversight subcommittee released a report saying that Liz Cheney’s communication with January 6 subcommittee witness Cassidy Hutchinson violated the law.
Republicans’ plans come as Trump told NBC’s Meet the Press that he wanted to see members of the January 6 select committee go to jail. Throughout much of Trump’s time as a candidate and president, a common refrain by Republicans was essentially “take him seriously, not literally.” In other words, he doesn’t really mean that. Republicans could then justify their support for his worst impulses to say he really meant he supported their major priorities.
But the recent actions by the subcommittee shows not only that Trump means what he says, but that he will demand that Republicans find the legal rationale to do so. Trump went as far as to thank the subcommittee’s chairman Barry Loudermilk for the report.
Continue reading…
ANALYSIS: Republicans ranging from Mitt Romney to Chuck Grassley are either keeping their head down or brushing off Trump’s actions, writes Eric Garcia
CNN anchor Jim Acosta confronted Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) on Wednesday over a House Republican subcommittee siding with President-elect Donald Trump and concluding that former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney should be prosecuted for investigating what occurred when Trump incited an attack on the U.S. Capitol after losing the 2020 election.
‘Isn’t this banana republic stuff?!” Acosta wondered at one point.
Justin Barangoa reports.
“Is this about Trump getting revenge and House Republicans going along with it?” CNN’s Jim Acosta wondered during a heated exchange with Rep. Tim Burchett on Wednesday.
Elon Musk, clad in tuxedo and black tie, took the stage at President-elect Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort shortly after the election with all the swagger of the winning candidate himself.
“The public has given us a mandate that could not be more clear, the clearest mandate. The people have spoken. The people want change,” Musk told the audience of Trump’s biggest donors, campaign leaders and appointment seekers. “We are going to shake things up. It’s going to be a revolution.”
Except the so-called mandate was not one he won from American voters, and Trump may grow weary of the overwhelming attention Musk is attracting.
Continue reading…
Is that going to be a problem for them?
Mike Johnson got an early taste of what was to come yesterday when Steve Doocy of Fox and Friends confronted him with a Musk social media post live on air in which the billionaire expressed disdain for his new spending bill, forcing the speaker to respond on the spot.
Here’s what he had to say.
House Republican leader challenged over tech billionaire’s opposition to latest stop-gap funding deal
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