Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., told Newsmax on Tuesday that President-elect Donald Trump "made a huge impact" on Republicans who were uncertain of supporting House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., to maintain his leadership role in the next Congress.
Burchett told "Wake Up America" that he's undecided about whether to vote for Johnson on Friday when the 119th Congress convenes.
"I'm going to wait until Friday to make that decision," he said. "I'm going to pray about it, I want to talk to Speaker Johnson about some ideas I have and hopefully that's where he is, and then I'll make that decision."
He added that Trump's endorsement of Johnson over the weekend "has made a huge impact" on Republicans who were on the fence about whether to support Johnson.
"I see that swaying a lot of folks that maybe were neutral or were unsure," Burchett said. "So, I don't think anybody in our party wants to start off the new year on a bad standing with President Trump."
When asked about opposition to Johnson from Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., and other conservatives, Burchett said Spartz and many others took issue with the stopgap spending bill that the House passed earlier this month.
"Everybody wants everything to pass that they had, but you got to realize that the bill had a lot of unnecessary spending in it," he said.
"It was supposed to be a continued resolution, and in fact … it had plenty of pork in it. There was $5 billion in there for submarines and we just passed the National Defense Authorization Act a couple weeks prior to it, and it had billions more than we'd had in the past."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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