Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris, R-Md., said Thursday that House Republicans need to soon determine whether Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., "is what we need" as leader moving forward.
Harris, reelected as chair of the conservative caucus earlier this month, made the comments in an interview, Politico reported. The remarks come after Johnson struggled to lead the chamber to pass the stopgap funding bill, an effort that took three tries just ahead of last week's deadline to shut down the government.
"Before the last couple of weeks, I was in his corner, but now we should consider what's the best path forward," Harris said. "We do need to consider whether — if we're going to advance Mr. [Donald] Trump's agenda — whether the current leadership is what we need."
The speaker vote will be held Jan. 3 and given Republicans' four-seat majority at that point, Johnson can afford just one "no" vote from his conference. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., has already vowed to vote against Johnson and several more Republicans are noncommittal, including, now, Harris.
President-elect Trump said Johnson would "easily" remain speaker as long as he rejected the funding "traps" set by Democrats after details emerged of the first iteration of the funding bill. Johnson ultimately passed a continuing resolution that cut billions in new funding, but he did so without addressing Trump's demand to raise the debt limit and, to conservatives, without cutting enough from the bill that finally passed.
Since then, Trump has not commented on whether he backs the lawmaker for speaker in the next Congress.
Upon passing the stopgap, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said, "if we had a speaker with a spine who put forward a budget and a plan to cut spending over a five-year period to balance a budget, I'll vote to raise the debt ceiling, because you still have to add debt during that five years."
He added, "you need strength in a speaker, somebody who could put forward something that actually is going to change the course."
Complicating matters is that if Republicans vote against Johnson, they'll need to agree on a new speaker or risk delaying Trump's certification, scheduled to take place Jan. 6.
"Nothing else happens until the speaker is elected. It's been that way since 1789 when the first Congress convened. Now, that worked just fine for the first Congress. But that could prove problematic here," Steve Smith, a professor of political science and global studies at Arizona State University, said.
It took 3 weeks for Johnson to win the speakership after the ouster of Kevin McCarthy in October 2023.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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