Johnson Speakership Hangs in Balance as Spending Deal Collapses

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Thursday faced the most serious threat to his position since 163 Democrats voted to save his gavel back in May.

Johnson’s 1,547-page year-end spending deal, released Tuesday night after days of extended deadlines, fell apart in less than 24 hours as Republicans of all ideological stripes turned on the bill over its contents and Johnson’s mishandling of negotiations and the rollout.

Conservatives, moderates, loyal rank-and-file Republicans, and even a committee chairman savaged the bill for giving far too much to Democrats.

President-elect Donald Trump and soon-to-be Vice President JD Vance released a statement Thursday afternoon urging Republicans to pursue a clean continuing resolution with only an add-on addressing the debt ceiling.

Their statement, accusing Johnson’s deal of being detrimental to Trump’s agenda, was the stake in the heart of a rapidly collapsing deal, which was already on fumes after deep-pocketed Elon Musk had spent the day attacking the bill and warning Republicans to oppose it or face a primary challenge.

The path forward for a government plan is uncertain. But after his plan collapsed, Johnson’s continued leadership of House Republicans is tenuous at best.

“If I were a betting person right now, I think it’s probably even odds” that Johnson is reelected, Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD) told Breitbart News Wednesday, minutes after Trump and Vance released their deal-killing statement.

The Speaker election will take place January 3, 2025 on the first day of the new Congress.

Johnson might not make it until then.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), one of Johnson’s top critics, has already promised to oppose Johnson.

“I’ll vote for somebody else,” Massie said, according to Politico. “I’ve got a few in mind. I’m not going to say yet.”

Others are rumored to join him, possibly going public as soon as Thursday.

If it becomes clear Johnson is a lame duck speaker, all bets are off for what House Republicans might do to get a government funding bill across the finish line – and who they’ll charge with negotiating it.

Johnson has weathered criticism – mostly from conservatives – throughout his 14-month tenure atop the House Republican Conference. This time, its different.

In his brief time as speaker, Johnson has negotiated much-maligned spending deals with Democrats, betrayed his oft-repeated promise to pass tens of billions of dollars in Ukraine aid without first passing border security provisions, and extended FISA’s reauthorization after casting the deciding vote to kill an amendment prohibiting warrantless surveillance of American citizens – an amendment Johnson had long championed before a sudden change of heart and intense lobbying from the intelligence community that Trump and his allies loathe.

Then-candidate Trump remained relatively disengaged from those battles. But his refutation of Johnson’s deal Wednesday marks a new stage in their relationship which Johnson has worked assiduously – if awkwardly – to cultivate.

The widespread dissatisfaction with Johnson’s deal – his last chance to make a case for his speakership to extend into the next Trump administration – signals a new low point for the Speaker’s position inside his ranks.

Johnson’s ascendancy after Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-CA) fall and multiple other candidates failed to receive a critical level of support was due in part to his relative popularity. He had simply not made any enemies during his time in the shadows.

But now, as Republicans prepare for a two-year opportunity in which they will hold the White House, Senate, and the slimmest of majorities in the House, many are asking: what exactly does Johnson bring to the table?

Johnson remains personally well-liked throughout his conference. But the former back-bencher entered leadership without high-level fundraising experience most previous speakers had leveraged to win and keep their position, experience negotiating high-stakes deals with much more experienced Democrats, or managing a massive political, legislative, communications, and fundraising operation required of a speaker.

After a year in the driver’s seat, Republicans are questioning whether he has grown into the job.

“He doesn’t have his eye on the ball,” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) told Breitbart News Tuesday evening as Republican dissatisfaction with Johnson’s deal grew. “He’s sending his staff in to negotiate when he should be in there negotiating.”

Breitbart has reported on Johnson’s staff throughout his tenure. His staffing issues have included multiple high-level departures. But perhaps most worrisome, his hastily-assembled staff has been slammed for including a former lobbyist as his top policy advisor and another key staffer from the intelligence community, as well as another staffer who attacked a Republican group after their endorsement of Trump.

Burlison argued Johnson should be personally engaged in negotiating high-level deals instead of sending in his staff.

“If I give my child 100 bucks and say, ‘go buy a Christmas gift for mom,’ [they’re] probably not going to come back with the best gift at the best value,” he said, criticizing the leadership model Johnson has adopted.

“They do not engage themselves. They let their staff go in, and this is the result,” he added. “And so we’re supposed to swallow this, and I’m not I’m not going to.”

Republican Senators have made taken the rare step of attacking Johnson’s leadership as well.

“I had hoped to see @SpeakerJohnson grow a spine, but this bill full of pork shows he is a weak, weak man,” Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) said Wednesday morning before the deal fell apart.

“The debt will continue to grow. Ultimately the dollar will fail. Democrats are clueless and Big Gov Republicans are complicit. A sad day for America.”

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) told Breitbart News Editor-in-chief Alex Marlow Wednesday that the rushed process has been a “total clown show,” pointing the finger at Johnson for repeatedly failing to deliver.

“I for one am sick of it, and I think the American people are sick of it,” he said. “They want people who do what they say, and Republicans have been saying for years they’re not going to engage these games, they’re not going to do this kind of stuff, and Mike Johnson just keeps right on doing it.”

Johnson’s spending deal with Democrat provides lawmakers raises and Obamacare opt-outs and even includes a provision to protect Congress from outside investigations, in addition to countless other giveaways to Democrats and lobbyists in its 1,500-plus pages.

Johnson promised in September not to pass a lame duck Christmas omnibus, but lawmakers throughout his conference have accused the bill of being an omnibus by another name.

“This is not an omnibus, OK?” he said Tuesday. “This is a small CR that we had to add things to that were out of our control. These are not man-made disasters. These are things that are — the federal government has an appropriate role to do.”

But less than 100 of the bill’s 1,547 pages address spending and the farm and disaster aid, despite Johnson’s characterizations of the bill as a continuing resolution.

The rushed timeline, allegedly designed for the bill to pass before lawmakers and the public are aware of its contents, has rankled Republicans as well.

Its a story Republicans have watched unfold during prior Republican speakerships, although former speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan were more successful in standing up to Democrat demands.

The conference is not short on other options for Speaker, including several who sought the spot last year but fell short. Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH), a Trump favorite, remains the most popular House Republican nationally, and Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) has savvily worked to build a warm relationship with Trump after earlier rough patches. Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) almost certainly would seek the gavel as well.

No other candidate is likely to make a play for the speaker’s job until – if – Johnson falls.

But after reaching a low point after 14 unremarkable months, and with Trump preparing an aggressive legislative agenda next year, Republicans are likely to desire more than a steward as speaker.

As the chaotic last several days have made clear, anything could happen, and when it does, it will happen fast – and the affable but flat-footed Johnson will likely be playing catch-up.

Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.