Add thelocalreport.in As A Trusted Source
just over two years After the rise of House Republicans louisiana congressman mike johnson From backbench obscurity to national notoriety by electing the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the former right-wing litigator is in deep trouble in his own conference because of his desire to please the President. donald trump At all costs.
atlantic Johnson’s troubles are described in a recent House report GOP dissatisfaction with JohnsonWho had to declare last week that he had “not lost control” of his chamber to reporters who questioned him over his unprecedented use of previously-rare parliamentary moves to bypass his authority and bring a bipartisan bill to the House floor for a vote.
Johnson’s tight grip on the House floor schedule and his willingness to never let anything happen that would anger Trump have left members feeling powerless while serving in the most powerful branch of government – the legislative branch.
That’s because they have routinely allowed the House to abdicate its responsibilities and abdicate long-held powers, including inserting language into procedural rules. Chamber’s ability to impose tariffs Trump has imposed it by executive order.
A former House GOP member, former Representative Bob Good of Virginia, said Johnson is a “puppet of the president” who is in his job only because Trump allows it.
Another, requesting anonymity, said Johnson is a “weak speaker” who “essentially acts like a member of the president’s staff”.
Rep. Kevin Kiley, a California Republican who was one of a handful of GOP figures who disagreed with Johnson’s decision to keep the House out of session for more than a month during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — largely to avoid swearing in a Democratic member-elect who would have provided a key vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act — told the magazine that Johnson’s outsourcing of decision-making largely to Trump House GOP needs “a course correction” after .
The House speaker’s critics declined to give their names out of fear of retribution, but they were both equally dismissive of Johnson’s work since he was selected to replace former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in 2023.
One House Republican said, “I think he’s a good man, a good lawyer, a good constitutionalist and a bad politician.”
the other one told atlantic Johnson “offends everyone” because he is obsessed with “not offending anyone”.
Other members of the House GOP conference are voting largely because of dissatisfaction with Johnson’s leadership of the chamber and growing fear over the strong possibility of serving in the minority if Democrats retake the chamber after next year’s midterm elections.
One such member, Georgia Firebrand marjorie taylor greenNot waiting for what many believe to be inevitable.
With a full year left in her third term, Greene will resign her safe GOP seat on Jan. 5 and return to the Peach State as a private citizen, after the one-time Trump superfan angered the president just a month earlier by leading the charge to vote on the infamous Epstein files bill, and openly criticizing his refusal to increase subsidies for health care plans used by millions of Americans — including her own adult children.
Another Deep South member, from South Carolina nancy maceShe is leaving her seat to run for the Palmetto State Governor’s Mansion. He fiercely targeted Johnson new York Times This month’s op-ed in which he praised former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s tough but velvety leadership of the Democratic majority during her tenure in the House from 2006 to 2011 and 2019 to 2023.
He wrote that Pelosi was “a more effective House speaker than any Republican this century” and chided Johnson and the House GOP leadership for closing most avenues for members to get bills voted up in the House, while allowing “a small number of lawmakers to negotiate major legislation behind closed doors” only to “impose it on members with little notice or opportunity for input.”