Republicans Take Control of Congress — and Harris Certifies Her Own Loss

from New York Times I'm Michael babro. this is the. [Music]. daily today during its first few days in. power the Republican controlled House. and Senate have vowed to put aside their. Furious intraparty battles to make. Donald Trump's sweeping agenda the law. of the land.

I spoke with my colleague Katie Edmonson. about How likely that actually. [Music]. [Applause]. is it's Tuesday January. [Music]. 7th so ktie take us if you would inside. the house chamber on Monday afternoon. for this pretty moment this ceremony.

well I think today's ceremony really. underscored what is supposed to be the. proor nature of the January 6th. Congressional counting of electoral. votes this is a performative ritual in. which Congress counts the electoral. votes from each state and certifies the. election of whoever won the. presidency obviously if your first. introduction to this ceremony was four. years ago you had a very different view.

of what happened on that day indeed and. so today's counting of electoral votes. really was what was supposed to. happen the house come to. order the Senate and House of. Representatives are meeting in joint. session to verify the certificates and. count the votes of the electors of the. several States for President and Vice.

President of the United States you had. vice president kamla Harris overseeing. the entire ceremony overseeing. essentially Congress certifying her own. law the certificate of the electoral. vote of the state of Maryland seems to. be regular in form and authentic and it. appears there from the Comm Harris of. the State of California received 10. votes for president and Tim Walls of the. state of min inota received 10 votes for.

vice president and you had a pretty. Stark scene I think in which she's. standing there sort of staring Straight. Ahead as one by one lawmakers stand up. and they are announcing the states that. she won as a presidential candidate but. they're also announcing the states that. she lost certificate of the electoral. vote of the state of Michigan the. certificate of the electoral vote of the. state of Nevada the certificate of the. electoral vote of the great state.

Wisconsin seems to be regular in form. and authentic and it appears there from. that Donald J Trump of the State of. Florida received 10 votes for president. and JD Vance of the state of Ohio. received 10 votes for vice president and. so as we go through the role call of. States not only are we reliving sort of. the calls on Election night but Harris. is reliving it too the votes for. president of the United States are as. follows Donald J Trump of the State of. Florida has received 3 12.

votes kamla D Harris of the State of. California has received 226. votes and at the end of this entire. process it falls to her to be the one to. say that Trump was the candidate who won. the electoral votes to win the. presidency thank you very. [Applause]. much right it's all very respectful and. it's the peace full transfer of power in.

action to your point earlier a. restoration of what is supposed to be a. routine yeah that's exactly right I. think lawmakers were largely pretty. relieved to see that they were able to. all come together here complete their. ceremony without any major events but I. also think at the same time you'd be. kidding yourself if you pointed to this. particular vote and said well Congress. is going to be a pretty drama-free. institution a pretty United Institution.

moving forward when in fact you only. have to look back to the vote that. played out on the house floor on Friday. with the reelection of Mike Johnson to. the speakership to see there are some. pretty raw divisions within the house. Republican conference that are likely. going to animate this Congress moving. forward well talk us through that what. exactly happened last Friday well really. Michael this is the continuation of the. story that you and I have talked about. for so long now which is that there is.

this group of. ultraconservative anti-s spending fiscal. Hawks in the house Republican conference. who feel that they have been again and. again let down by house Republican. leadership when it comes to matters of. government spending these are the guys. who voted to oust Kevin McCarthy when he. was speaker and this time when it came. to the re-election of speaker Mike. Johnson they decided to play the role of. the thorn in his side yet again and.

why exactly did they choose to fight. this speaker's re-election given and. Katie I think it was you who said this. to me in one of those many conversations. about this group of hard right fiscal. conservatives Johnson was for a long. time considered a kind of kindred spirit. to these house conservative Republicans. and someone whose strong relationship. with them would insulate him from this. kind of rebellion so on paper it should. have been a Glide path for Johnson but. these Ultra conservatives for months now.

have been nursing the same grievance. against Johnson that they had against. McCarthy which is that when it comes to. keeping the government open avoiding a. shutdown passing these massive spending. bills both Johnson and McCarthy. routinely relied on Democratic votes to. keep spending levels flat and it is. something that has just infuriated these. hard-right. Republicans the other factor that was. working against Johnson here is that he. had an extraordinary thin margin in the.

house so in order to win the speakership. on Friday he was able to lose just one. Republican and we knew going into the. vote that in fact he already had lost at. least one Republican we knew that. Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky. was going to vote against himh for all. the fiscal reasons we've been discussing. exactly and so that meant that he could. not afford to lose anyone else on the. house floor during that vote. and we got our first sort of inkling.

that there was going to be real trouble. for him on this first ballot early on. the next order of business is the. election of the Speaker of the House of. Representatives for the 119th Congress. the reading clerk will now call the role. Adams there are a number of Freedom. caucus members whose last names start. with b or c uh which is relevant only in. so far as the role call call is called.

alphabetically right and so lo and. behold bigs of Arizona we get to. representative Andy bigs of Arizona his. name is called out and he doesn't. respond H. silence silence and Michael I have to. say sometimes lawmakers are not. necessarily the most focused on the. floor sometimes they're hard of hearing. and so the first time his name is called. and there's silence you're thinking. maybe there's a mistake maybe he's. running late but we saw him standing on.

the center aisle of the house floor bigs. of Arizona his name was called. again and he was staring just sort of. defiantly straight into. space bigs of South. [Music]. Carolina. Johnson and they moved on. cloud cloud and we saw that happen. several more times throughout the roll.

call. Clyde. Clyde and it became extraordinarily. clear especially given which lawmakers. were refusing to answer that this was a. concerted effort to deprive Johnson of. the votes he needed to become speaker. and basically to put a stick in his eye. and his predicament gets worse as you be. go down the roll call because not only. has Thomas Massie voted against him. voted for another Republican lawmaker.

but. Norman Jord Jordan self Donal Donalds. two other Republicans cast their votes. for other lawmakers as well so now you. had six lawmakers refusing to answer in. protest and three Republicans voting. against him outright Johnson this whole. time was sitting very stoically in his. seat on the house floor but before they. even I think got to the last set of. names on the roll call he was out of his.

seat and he was over talking to some of. these. defectors and that set off a very. familiar scene on the house floor which. was the Republican leader haggling and. negotiating in real time with these. holdouts for their votes to win the. gavel right because at this moment he. has lost reelection or he's not won it. well it looks like he's going to lose. reelection and not only that if the vote.

had been called with those lawmakers. casting their votes or refusing to vote. it looked as if the gavl could fall into. Hakeem jeffy's hands the Democratic. leader because the person who wins the. speakership is the person who wins the. most votes oh wow so this was going to. be a huge problem for not only Mike. Johnson personally but potentially. Republicans at large so Mike Johnson is. negotiating he's talking with these. lawmakers and we see those six lawmakers.

who refused to vote suddenly change. their votes and cast them for Johnson. okay so where does that math leave Mike. Johnson well he still has a big problem. on his hands because again he can only. lose one Republican and at this point in. time there are three Republicans voting. against him now his allies always saw. Thomas Massie the congressman from. Kentucky as being a movable someone they. were not going to be able to flip and so. Johnson's Focus turned turns to the two.

other holdouts Keith self of Texas and. Ralph Norman of South Carolina and he'd. been talking with them on the house. floor but he kind of whisks them off the. house floor into this anti room and. that's when Congresswoman Nancy Mace of. South Carolina intervenes and who does. she have on the phone but president. Trump H he apparently was in the middle. of a golf game down in Florida and he. spoke with Johnson Norman and self all.

on speaker phone in this anti room and. we know what his message was because. Ralph Norman and Keith self told us. afterwards his message was look Mike is. the only guy who has the votes to become. speaker right you need to do this for me. we need to get on with it right we have. a trifecta this type of opportunity is a. rare one we need to seize it we need to. get going and it sounds like neither man. really pushed back much on this Ralph. Norman. told us that his response to Trump was.

well you know we just want to make sure. that Mike is the person who's going to. get everything that you want we want to. make sure you get your deal and that's. really where our trepidations are but. house will be in order by the end of the. call Keith self and Ralph Norman walk. back out onto the house floor Mr Norman. Johnson Mr self. Johnson and they changed their votes. therefore the honorable Mike Johnson of. this state of Louisiana having received.

a majority of the votes cast is duly. elected Speaker of the House of. Representatives for the9th. Congress and so Johnson was able to. successfully win the speakership on that. first. ballot but minutes after Johnson is. officially reelected the house Freedom. caucus which is sort of the organizing. organ for a lot of these guys it's that. ultraconservative block of lawmakers. they send him a public letter H and it.

begins today we voted for Mike Johnson. for speaker of the house because of our. steadfast support of President Trump we. did this despite our sincere. reservations regarding the speaker's. track record over the past 15 months. translation we voted for you but we. don't really trust you and we did it for. Trump yeah exactly and to send this. minutes after he wins reelection after. they subjected him to this kind of. embarrassing spectacle on the house.

floor right is really to assert their. own power and to say you need to listen. to us Katie how do you understand what. played out here these House Republicans. basically saying they're going to do. this for Trump when Trump himself is. somebody who has when he was president. raised the national debt by trillions. and trillions of dollars which very much. seems at odds with what these House. fiscal conservatives say they care about. it almost feels like holding a lot of.

what's happened in the last few years. against Johnson rather than Trump when. on top of all that Trump is pledging to. do things as president that would. further increase the national debt yeah. I mean I think we got a preview of a lot. of potential collisions to come in this. Congress both in this vote and in the. past couple of weeks right in this. letter that the house Freedom caucus. sent to Johnson they enumerated A List.

of Demands and these demands are going. to be incredibly hard for Johnson to act. on one of them is that they can't raise. the debt limit which is something that. President Trump has requested lawmakers. do without enacting deep spending cuts. that would offset their increases to the. nation's borrowing. limit another one is that if you're. going to implement a program as costly. as mass deportations then you need to. cut other government government programs.

somewhere else and so what you have. essentially is these lawmakers saying. that they want to enact Trump's agenda. but they want to do so in a way that is. going to be almost impossible to push. through the house when it comes to. achieving these types of fiscal goals. and so I think that's partly why they're. looking to Mike Johnson Congress of. course has the power of the purse I. think they're looking for him to come up. with some of those answers to fill in. some of the blanks here but I also think.

it's just a fact that they inherently. understand that Trump himself doesn't. really have these same concerns about. fiscal responsibility that they. themselves share so ultimately they take. out their frustration at Mike Johnson at. the speaker because he's ultimately. responsible for federal spending so it. makes a certain sense I think that's. right and look I think more cynically. you also just have to face the reality. that he is a politically safer Target to. vent frustrations at that Trump is so.

what does all of this add up to when we. think about how Republican control of. the house is going to work with Donald. Trump as president and Mike Johnson as. Speaker well I think the entire exercise. that we went through on Friday was. really conservatives putting Mike. Johnson and his leadership on notice. right the idea that he really is going. to have to answer to them he is going to. have to be responsive to their demands.

and I think look you could say hasn't. that been true for the entire last year. of Mike Johnson's speakership how is. this any different but the difference. year I think are the expectations. Republicans are starting this year. thinking we have a real opportunity here. we just won big we won the house we won. the Senate we won the White House this. is our time to deliver for our voters. for our constituents and so there's a. lot of pressure on Mike Johnson to. deliver or. else right I mean that's the fundamental.

message here if he doesn't deliver for. especially these conservative fiscal. House Republicans they may decide one. day to wake up and toss them out yes. that is the message that is the sort of. Damocles they want hovering over his. head they want him to know that he is on. thin ice and I think what's striking. about that is it's shaping up to be a. very different environment than what. we're seeing over on the other side of. the capital where Republicans also have.

a majority in the United States. [Music]. Senate we'll be right. back so Katie describe the dynamic now. at play over in the Senate side of the. US capital under Republican control well. while all of this drama was planting out. in the house on Friday things were much.

calmer over in the Senate we saw the. newly elected senators get sworn in but. probably the biggest change was that. Mitch McConnell is no longer the. Republican leader and that's for the. first time in about two decades instead. we have a new leader hming the. Republican conference and that is. Senator John th of South Dakota and. what's the story of his selection his. rather undramatic selection compared to. my Johnson's as Senate Majority Leader.

well it was an election that was lacking. in drama but that wasn't necessarily a. foregone conclusion so back in November. when it became clear that Republicans. had won control of the Senate there was. I would say a clutch of magga. conservatives who said look if we're. going to have this governing Trifecta. why don't we make sure that we have a. true Maga loyalist leading Senate. Republicans because they felt that they. had been some what smothered by the.

leadership of Mitch McConnell who did. much to enable Trump but also was quite. critical of him at times right and this. is where Senator Rick Scott of Florida. threw his hat in the ring to challenge. John Thon to lead the Senate Republican. conference and we should think of Rick. Scott as being that Maga style candidate. that's right now one incredibly. important difference between how the. house elects the speaker and how. senators elect their party leader is.

that the Senate does it by secret ballot. and by the time the first round of. ballots were cast it was clear that Rick. Scott was not going to have the votes to. lead the Republican conference at all. worth pointing out as I think you're. essentially doing that the secret ballot. means that a senator never really has to. tell anybody including potentially angry. Maga supporting constituents what they. did in that vote yeah that's absolutely. right it gives them this insulation of. plausible deniability that members over.

in the house certainly do not have and I. think that helped get over the finish. line here but I think a lot of these. Republican Senators saw Thun as an. institutionalist he actually served as. McConnell's Deputy he was McConnell's. number two he absorbed a lot of the. responsibilities that McConnell kind of. had to relinquish as he was dealing with. health problems in the last year and I. think they also saw him as someone who. wanted to guard the Senate Independence. as an institution in a way that Rick.

Scott was certainly not campaigning on. well just explain that how should we. think of Thun and what is his. relationship to Donald Trump you've made. clear that he was not the Maga candidate. what is he exactly well you know I think. it might be best explained in his own. words Senate Majority Leader soon. welcome back to Meet the Press thanks. Christen great to be with you he. actually went on to a Sunday show a. couple of days ago and was asked how. would you describe your relationship. with president-elect Trump right now now. what's your relationship like with.

Donald Trump and his response was well. you know what um we are it's it's it's. evolving it's. evolving which I think kind of tells you. all you need to know where has it. evolved from and what is it evolving. into well Trump himself actually once. accused John Thun of being a rhino a. republican in name only which is one of. sort of the worst political slurs that. can be bandied about within the. Republican party and what earned him. that moniker that slur Ryo from Trump.

well that is because John th not only. did not support Trump's effort to. challenge the 2020 election results but. he also was quite publicly skeptical of. that effort to overturn Biden's. electoral Victory I actually remember. very distinctly a reporter asking th in. the halls of the capital leading up to. January 6th 2021 asking him John th what. do you think about Donald Trump's effort.

to overturn the election here and thun's. answer was I think it's going to go down. like a shot dog which Trump did not take. kindly to but four years later I think. when it comes to the big issues securing. the Border uh rebuilding the military. strengthening the economy uh you know. generating energy dominance for this. country those are all things on which we. agree and so I himself explicitly says a. number of the major agenda items that. Trump has coming into the White House. are ones that he believes in the things.

that he talked about on the campaign. Trail the things that the American. people voted for uh are all things that. I think uh this president wants to get. done we want to get done and I say that. our our incentives are aligned that his. incentives and Trump's incentives are. aligned H at the same time he is. certainly not a Maga loyalist in the. vein of Rick Scott and I do think one of. the reasons why Republican Senators. ultimately voted to have him lead their. conference was because they are looking. for a leader who is willing to assert a.

little bit more Independence and they. thought he would provide some sort of. level of protection for the Senate as an. institution at a time when Trump has. strongly suggested he wants to co-opt. that Independence for his own agenda. right I guess the question is just how. much or just how little that's right. that is going to be the question of this. Congress so Katie let's bring all of. this together now as we consider how. this Congress is likely to operate over.

the next few weeks next few months next. basically two years until there's a. midterm election and things might change. what underlies the drama in the house as. you explained is the fact that they have. a very small razor thin majority that. allows these fiscal conservatives to. exert a lot of power when they want to. they can simply withhold their support. for either Johnson or any Republican. bill the reality is that the same. situation basically holds true in the. Senate right there are just a few Senate. Republicans who could block anything.

whether it's a confirmation or a. spending bill or an immigration bill so. is this a republican controlled House. and Senate that's actually practically. capable of getting Trump's agenda passed. I mean it's going to be really tough now. we have a blueprint of what they hope. their major legislative accomplishment. is going to be what's that so. Republicans right now are talking about. shoehorning in a number of their.

priorities raising the debt limit. enacting deep spending cuts extending. the Trump tax cuts from. 2017 as well as cracking down in. Immigration implementing these new. border security policies and they want. to put it all into one bill that they're. going to try to fast trck through. Congress using this process called. budget reconciliation which allows the. Senate to pass a measure like this using. just a simple majority vote right. Democrats did this with the inflation.

reduction act that's right and the point. of that is that it's a much lower. threshold of support needed to pass this. than what is usually required in the. Senate now the problem with this is that. by jamming all of this legislation into. one bill maybe even jamming it into two. bills as some have suggested is that. this essentially becomes sort of a. seesaw from hell what does that mean. well you have lawmakers who want to. include very expensive immigration. measures who want to extend the Trump.

tax cuts which are estimated to cost. about $4 trillion and at the same time. they want to make sure this bill doesn't. cost money or add to the nation's debth. and so that means in order to offset the. costs of all of those other policies. you're going to have to enact some. really deep spending cuts now there are. certainly a number of lawmakers who. would be happy to shutter entire. agencies and these are the Republicans. in the house that we've mostly been. talking about to day but at the same.

time both in the house and the Senate. you have more Centrist Republicans. particularly Republicans who represent. purplish districts States who just got. out of tough re-elections who certainly. don't want to be seen as laying waste to. the federal government shuttering. programs that their constituents rely on. and so this becomes a tremendously. difficult Balancing Act to figure out. how do you implement all these policies. that are going to cost a of money while. cutting a bunch of programs Each of.

which have their own constituencies on. the hill and house Republican leaders. have decided to add an extra layer of. difficulty here they've said they want. to make sure this legislation at least. passes the house within the first 100. days of Trump's presidency wow and that. is a Herculean lift that we're now. talking about right getting a bill of. this scale and this many different goals. and competing interests past in a. essentially 3 months with a one vote.

majority in the house yes mhm it feels. Katie that we should end where we began. with the certification of the election. and the reality that four years ago we. couldn't have had this kind of. conversation in fact we didn't have this. conversation because the capital had. just been overrun by riers who believed. Donald Trump's false claim that the. election had been stolen and it was. chaos and it was trauma and now 4 years. later. his victory to a second presidential.

term has been very peacefully certified. as you recounted in a way that does give. us the space to talk about his agenda. and what his relationship with Congress. will look like and it's very ironic that. he's now been on both ends of this. day well I remember in the days after. January 6th talking to Republican. members of Congress who themselves were. Sheltering in place at the capital on. January 6th who heard stories from their.

staff about their staff barricading. themselves into their office to protect. themselves from the riers who were. rampaging through the capital and I. remember a lot of them being appalled by. what happened who were making the case. that Donald Trump was not someone who. should lead the Republican party and. that in fact in order to move on from. January 6th in order to move on from. what had happened that Republicans.

needed to walk away from him as a leader. now fast forward four years later voters. have spoken they reelected Trump to the. White House for a second term they. elected a republican Congress giving. Republicans a majority in both the house. and the Senate and you have a Republican. party that is pretty unified around. Trump himself and so it's a remarkable. turn about and it's not lost on me at. all that the question now is not should.

they unify around Trump but rather how. unified can they be and how successful. they will be at making his agenda come. to. fruition well KY thank you very much. thanks. Michael we'll be right back. [Music].

here's what else you need to another day. on Monday Canadian Prime Minister Justin. Trudeau said that he would resign after. almost a decade in power his resignation. follows months of calls by members of. his own party that he step aside as both. prime minister and leader of his party. before major elections later this. year and a legal battle is brewing over.

the future of us Steel on Monday 3 days. after President Biden blocked the merger. of Japan's nepon steel with us steel. both companies have sued to keep the 14. billion merger on track in blocking the. merger Biden said that it risked US. National Security a claim that both. companies have rejected. today's episode was produced by Claire.

tenis AA chv and Michelle Banja it was. edited by Rachel quer and Liz o Balin. contains original music by Dan Powell. Pat mccusker Marian Lozano and Alicia. bitu and was engineered by Alysa Moxley. our theme music is by Jim runberg and. Ben Lansford of. Wonderland that's it for the daily I'm. Michael.

babo see you tomorrow. [Music].