“We are screwed.”
— A House Republican lawmaker, quoted by Axios, after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said he would join effort to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
“We are screwed.”
— A House Republican lawmaker, quoted by Axios, after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said he would join effort to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) announced he will co-sponsor a resolution to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) from the top job, The Hill reports.
Said Massie: “I just told Mike Johnson in conference that I’m cosponsoring the Motion to Vacate that was introduced by Greene. He should pre-announce his resignation (as Boehner did), so we can pick a new Speaker without ever being without a GOP Speaker.”
“Republican hardliners are growing angry at House Speaker Mike Johnson’s complex plan to advance billions in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, the latest indication that Democratic support will be needed to save it,” CNN reports.
“But the text of the plan has not been released, so House Democrats are still weighing whether to bail out Johnson – or stand up against it and pressure Republicans to instead take up the $95 billion Senate package that Johnson has sidelined for two months. House Democrats meet Tuesday morning.”
“The first problem for Johnson: Approving the rule that governs floor debate, a procedural step that allows legislation to be passed by a majority vote. For decades, these rules have been approved along straight-party lines, but GOP divisions have derailed rules seven times this Congress and stymied its agenda.”
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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) told CNN that Donald Trump’s comments that he “stands by” Speaker Mike Johnson doesn’t change her push to oust him.
She contended that Trump shouldn’t have been put in that position. She also predicted that if Johnson moves on Ukraine, more Republicans would back her motion to vacate
House Republicans plan to try to pass four bills this week to send aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, Punchbowl News reports.
The fourth bill will include a ban on TikTok, a bill to sell off seized Russian assets, a Lend-Lease act for military aid, convertible loans for humanitarian relief and other provisions.
The GOP leadership will try to move this plan under one rule, the sources said.
Politico: “But here’s the big question: If the bills come over from the House to the Senate broken up into pieces – particularly a piece that sends aid to Israel without conditions – would it be a problem for the Senate, given rising Democratic concerns over the U.S. ally’s handling of its war in Gaza?”
“Why wouldn’t we? Trump is right all the time. Trump is right all the time.”
— Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX), when asked if he supported extending the 2017 tax cuts.
Punchbowl News: “After the first-ever direct attack on Israel by Iran, most of official Washington is calling on Johnson to immediately put the $95 billion Senate-passed foreign aid bill on the House floor. But to do so could cost Johnson the speaker’s gavel because the measure includes tens of billions of dollars for Ukraine.”
“For months, Johnson has put off consideration of aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, a decision borne of political expediency, the need to tamp down intra-party fighting and to keep his speakership alive.”
“Yet reality has smacked the Louisiana Republican in the face, forcing him to make a series of extremely difficult decisions under intense pressure.”
“Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Sunday did not indicate that he would put the Senate-passed supplemental package on foreign aid on the floor this week, despite mounting pressure from Democrats and some GOP lawmakers to do so after Iran’s retaliatory strike against Israel,” NBC News reports.
Politico: “Six months after his ouster as speaker of the House, McCarthy is trying to write his own history. Although still comparatively young at 59 in an era of octogenarian politicians, it’s hard to imagine a world in which the first line of his obituary is not that he was the first speaker ever removed from office.”
“So now, McCarthy seems to have set himself to the task of shaping how future generations remember that moment and the eight months he spent wielding the gavel — even if it requires a selective retelling of what happened with a few big omissions.”
“From the start of her electoral career a decade ago, House GOP Conference Chair—and potential 2024 vice presidential nominee—Elise Stefanik has stressed her supposedly rough-cut origins, telling a story in which she saw firsthand the struggles of a scrappy family plywood business,” the Daily Beast reports.
“But if Stefanik was supposed to remember where she came from, she seems to have forgotten—to the point of making blatantly misleading statements, beginning in her first congressional campaign—how her family’s wealth has given her a leg up, from providing her with an expensive private-school education to her parents buying her a $1.2 million D.C. townhouse when she was just 26.”
“One of George Santos’ biggest GOP critics is seeking to block expelled members like him from returning to the House floor and other Capitol hotspots open to former members,” Politico reports.
“Rep. Anthony D’Esposito (R-NY) is slated to introduce a resolution Friday morning that would amend the rules to ‘deny certain privileges’ to former members who have been expelled from the House.”
“House Republicans have bridged an extreme divide within their conference over how to reform a surveillance mechanism used by government agencies that for months has repeatedly foiled leadership plans to address the issue,” the Washington Post reports.
“In a bipartisan vote, the House reauthorized a part of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act on Friday, 273-147. It also needs to be passed by the Senate, where a majority of senators support the authorization, before an April 19 deadline.”
“House GOP leadership’s goal to pass the bill by the end of this week almost did not happen after 19 far-right Republicans blocked debate on the measure Wednesday by voting against advancing beyond a procedural hurdle. The group took advantage of Republicans’ narrow two-vote majority to protest failure to meet their demands to incorporate changes to the bill.”
Playbook: “The bill’s passage marked a hard-fought victory for Johnson, who finally got Republicans on board to pass the rule for the legislation this morning on the fourth try in six months. It also saw an unusually diverse set of odd bedfellows coalesce to try to impose new curbs on intelligence gathering.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) would not say what happened to the shares she purchased in a company that helped Donald Trump’s business go public on the Nasdaq, CNBC reports.
“The House on Friday advanced a bill to reauthorize the U.S.’s warrantless surveillance authority, opening the measure up for debate two days after a band of conservatives blocked a previous version of the legislation from moving forward,” The Hill reports.
“House Speaker Mike Johnson, with no shortage of problems at the Capitol, is taking a quick spring break to Florida,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“As he grapples with fallout among House conservatives over a national-security spying law and aid to Ukraine, Johnson’s team reached out to former President Donald Trump to propose that the two men turn a previously planned meeting into a public show of unity, according to a person close to Johnson.”
“Johnson seeks to highlight legislation designed to keep noncitizens from voting, the person close to Johnson said. In doing so, allies of the speaker and former president hope their public embrace will put a focus on issues they say matter to Republican voters—instead of the internal party warfare in the House that has left Johnson’s speakership hanging in the balance.”
CNN: Johnson embraces Trump as threat to oust him from speakership looms.
Axios: “Top Trump allies believe Johnson is as good of a House speaker as they are going to get this Congress.”
“Plus, the two men get along just fine, and there is no reason to throw the House into chaos and further weaken Republicans’ position seven months before Election Day.”
“The biggest fear is that if Greene moves forward with her threat, it would risk handing over the reins of the House — and along with that subpoena power — to Democrats, given Republicans’ razor-thin margin.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said Thursday that Democrats will not help GOP leaders with a procedural vote to advance legislation extending the government’s surveillance powers, The Hill reports.
Nineteen conservative Republicans joined forces with all House Democrats on Wednesday to sink a rule governing a bipartisan proposal to renew a controversial section of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, as well as several other Republican messaging bills.
Politico: “The Louisiana Republican has worked aggressively to meet high expectations of him on the fundraising circuit, and his high intake during his first full quarter in the job indicates success breaking through with high-dollars donors his party needs to hang onto the House majority this fall.”
“So far, Johnson has traveled to more than 20 states for fundraising and campaigning with GOP candidates since he won the gavel in October, according to his office.”
Playbook: “Johnson’s intake might have been high, but former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s was higher: McCarthy brought in $35 million in Q1 of 2023 and $31.5 million in Q1 of 2022.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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