The House Finally Has a Speaker

from The New York Times I'm Michael. borro this is the. [Music]. daily today on behalf of the house. Republican conference I rise today to. nominate the gentleman from Louisiana. Mike Johnson as Speaker of the people's. house after 21 days without a leader and. after cycling through four different.

nominees House Republicans have finally. elected a speaker to lead the chamber. therefore the honorable Mike Johnson of. the state of Louisiana having received a. majority of the votes cast is duly. elected Speaker of the House of. Representatives for the 118th. Congress my colleague Congressional. reporter Luke Broadwater was inside the. capital as it happened the committee. will retire from the chamber to escort. the speaker elect to the.

[Music]. [Applause]. [Music]. chair it's Thursday October. [Music]. 26th so Luke it's 2:32 p.m. and you just. raced into a phone booth inside the. capital to talk to us which is very nice. of you because it entailed tearing. yourself away from a historic scene was.

unfolding and I want you to describe. that scene yes uh I was in the speaker. Lobby watching Republicans elect a new. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson of. Louisiana he had just one they were. lining up all the dignitaries in. leadership to honor this new speaker and. there was a bit of a debate going on. about who would present him the gavl. would it be the former speaker the.

temporary speaker or the leader of the. House Democrats and this was a. Monumental occasion because for more. than three weeks now the house has been. paralyzed no legislation has been able. to move no aid for any of our allies. overseas has been able to be approved. and a government shutdown is looming. right and Republicans had been fighting.

amongst themselves bitterly through. candidate after candidate. unsuccessfully until they landed on Mike. Johnson who received a unanimous vote of. his fellow House Republicans and now has. the mandate to get the Congress back to. work right I think the key word there is. unanimous which seems pretty improbable. given the battle we've just been through. and I want to kind of set the stage for.

this conversation because the last time. we covered this seemingly endless soap. opera representative Jim Jordan was the. nominee and it looked like Jordan was. going to be the next speaker despite his. reputation for being very far to the. right an obstructionist in the words of. a former Speaker John Boehner a. legislative terrorist so pick up the. story from there and help us understand. how we get to this moment right Jim.

Jordan was in the fight of his life to. try to become the next house speaker and. he had Unleashed a pressure campaign. against the holdouts from the more. mainstream wing of the party that were. refusing to vote for. him on Capitol Hill now some Republicans. who voted against GOP Congressman Jim. Jordan to be the next Speaker of the. House say they're getting death threats. threats and intimidation started to come. in including iow was Mar Marette Miller.

Meeks she said she's getting credible. death threats and a barrage of. threatening calls but will not people. started getting the personal cell phone. numbers of members of Congress and their. families why is your husband such a pig. cuz he's a deep State prick because he. doesn't represent the people at one. point a congressman said that his wife. had begun to sleep with a gun at night. because of the threats against the. family and it was just getting uglier.

and uglier and it actually had the. reverse effect instead of the moderates. buckling under the pressure campaign. they dug in deeper to find the resolve. and to fight back against these. [Music]. tactics right the idea had been that. Jordan was going to activate this. far-right network the party's base to. Hound these moderat lawmakers and make.

them feel like they didn't really have a. choice they had to vote for Jordan or. perhaps they lose reelection but it. turned out they did have a choice and. that choice was to create this unmovable. block of moderate Republicans who. basically said to Jim Jordan your. tactics are Beyond The Pale this is not. acceptable you will not be our speaker. and because Republicans have such a. tight majority it didn't take that many. moderates to block him now I will say. Jim Jordan says he had nothing to do. with the pressure campaign that he can't.

control outside groups that were. lobbying for him but that said his. supporters really offended many members. of Congress and because of the slim. margins in Congress any Republican. speaker candidate can only afford to. lose four fellow Republican votes. provided all the Democrats vote against. the Republican which is.

you know the way the chamber operates. the next order of business is the. election of speakers of the House of. Representatives for the 118th Congress. nominations are now in order and Jim. Jordan ended up losing. 25 fellow Republican votes I rise today. to nominate the gentleman from Ohio Jim. Jordan as Speaker of the people's house. and he lost them over a course of three. different floor votes and each time the. opposition to Jim Jordan Grill the total.

number of votes cast is. 432 of which The Honorable Jim Jordan of. the state of Ohio has received 200 votes. on the first vote there were 20. Republicans opposed to him no person. having received a majority the whole. number of votes cast by Sur name the. speaker has not been elected by the. second as the calls kept coming in of. placing in nomination the name of the. honorable Jim Jordan it Rose to 22. against him a speaker has not been.

elected as more calls flooded in I Rise. to nominate Jim Jordan for the Speaker. of the House the opposition Rose to 25. no person having received a majority the. whole number of votes cast by surname a. speaker has not been elected Pur fellow. Republicans standing firm in opposition. to Jim Jordan one the chair declares the. house in recess subject to the call of. the. chair right this was the Revenge of the. Republican moderates and it felt like a.

very distinct moment in time and the. lesson seemed to. be give us give the Republicans in the. house a much more mainstream candidate. to be our speaker yeah absolutely you. know for years in Congress the. Republican party has had uh something of. a civil war but it was almost always the. case that the hard right faction led by. the house Freedom caucus would use the.

tougher tactics and so they would get. their way and it was kind of a running. joke on the hill that the moderates. always cave that's the reason they're. moderates because they always want to. compromise and make people happy right. there's even a nickname for these. moderates right exactly some of the hard. right members call them the. squishes and for the first time that. anyone can remember the moderates stood. up for themselves and they stood up in. the face of this pressure campaign and. they blocked Jim Jordan and that sent a.

message I think a lot of us in the Press. Corps believed that there would be a. demand for a more mainstream or moderate. candidate and that led to the. nomination of Tom emmer of Minnesota on. Tuesday afternoon who is the number. three house Republican and perhaps the. most moderate of all the potential. candidates or leading candidates that.

have had a real chance at becoming. speaker this year and what makes him so. moderate well he has taken a number of. votes that I don't think that seem that. moderate to much of the country but they. do to the hard right for instance he. voted to prevent discrimination against. same-sex couples and he refused to. object to certifying President Biden's. 2020 victory at a time when Donald Trump. was putting intense pressure on House.

Republicans to overturn the election and. keep him as the president so Emmer's. kind of a moderate House Republicans. dream candidate for the speakership but. of course we know that overall House. Republicans are not so moderate so how. does emmer contend with that so emmer is. hopeful that he has the backing of the. mainstream Republicans but also has one. enough friends on the hard right to make.

sure that he can become speaker but what. becomes quickly apparent is that. although a majority of House Republicans. support Tom emmer Donald Trump does. not Donald Trump the de facto leader of. the Republican Party who has a lot of. influence in the house of Republican. conference just put out a blistering. statement attacking Tom emmer here's. what Trump said voting for a globalist. rhino like Tom Emma would be a tragic.

mistake and allies of Donald Trump go. out on the airwaves and on their. podcasts I I couldn't support Tom mem we. need a speaker of the house that. reflects the values and the views of. Republican voters across the country and. they support president Trump and they. support his agenda and Tom memmer does. not his and start ripping him apart he. certified the fake election he is has. been the wrong vote every single time he.

has Nancy Pelosi in a suit they say he's. not loyal to Trump and everyone who. watches the War Room posi in the show. needs to fight Tom emmer every step of. the way emmer starts defending himself. he endorsed Donald Trump twice he has. pictures of him with Donald Trump in his. office he starts circulating those. photos to Media Outlets to show how. loyal he is to Donald Trump but it's. still not enough for the hard.

[Music]. right so just 4 hours after he becomes. the nominee despite winning a majority. of the votes there are still about two. dozen hard rightous Republicans standing. in opposition to him refusing to vote. for Tom enor and Tom emmer sees no other. way out of this than to resign and. renounce his candidacy for speaker H so.

it turns out there are enough moderates. to kill a Jordan candidacy but not. enough moderates to elect Tom Ember. that's exactly right and so Republicans. are sent back to square one and they're. kind of scraping the bottom of the. barrel now to figure out who could be. the speaker and so after Tom emmer is. deposed six more Republicans throw their.

names in as potential candidates right. because basically everyone thinks like. why not me right yeah I mean there's a. joke that every Senator looks in the. mirror and sees a president and we're. quickly learning that every member of. the house every male member of the house. I might say looks in the mirror and sees. a speaker H and so what happens to all. these men looking in the mirror seeing a. speaker well six of them VI for the next.

round of votes I I guess this is the. fifth time Republicans will try to. nominate a speaker and one name starts. to rise above all the. others democracy is messy sometimes but. it is our system and that is someone. who's far to the right of Tom emmer who. has no problem with objecting to the. 2020 election results this conference. that you see this house Republican.

majority is. United and that is Mike Johnson of. Louisiana this is servant leadership. we're going to serve the people of this. country we're going to restore their. faith in this Congress this institution. of we'll be right. back so Luke tell us about this fourth. nominee to be the Republican house. Speaker who I'm going to be really.

honest I had never heard of before now. right and and there's a good reason you. haven't heard of him he hasn't been in. Congress that long he's not the chairman. of any major committee he is in fact not. the chairman of any committee and he's. kind of a you know a little known member. of Congress but here's what we do know. about Mike Johnson he is very. conservative and he's also very. religious welcome back to truth be told. I'm Mike Johnson and I'm Kelly Johnson.

he uh hosts a podcast with his wife. that's focused on Christianity Today. we're going to provide an answer to the. question that has been asked by. countless hundreds of millions of people. and probably by all of us at one point. or another how do I find God's will for. my life he often talks about being an. Evangelical Christian and those. Christian views those Conservative. Christian views really do shape his. politics roie Wade gave gave. constitutional cover to the elective.

killing and of unborn children in. America period you think about the. implications of that he's also very. close with Jim Jordan the two of them. have traveled to Israel together to meet. with Benjamin and yahu when when when. you and Kelly went with poly to Israel a. couple years ago what a good time we had. and a chance to uh learn about our great. friend and Ally that the state of Israel. and and Jim Jordan serves as a mentor to. him and sort of helped him run for. Congress originally and flew him out to.

meet with the house Freedom caucus guys. and just like Jim Jordan is very loyal. to Donald Trump so is Mike Johnson if. Jim Jordan was the public face of. fighting the 2020 election results in. Congress Mike Johnson was his silent. partner he was the Constitutional lawyer. behind the scenes coming up with various. legal ways and theories that that. Congress could try to overturn the.

results of the election the first thing. he did was he tried to get members of. Congress to sign on to an ultimately. failed lawsuit to throw out Joe Biden's. victory in four different states that. lawsuit's rejected by the Supreme Court. but not before Mike Johnson gets 60% of. House Republicans to sign on to it and. he does this by telling them he has. spoken with president Trump and. president Trump will be looking at the.

list of names and taking account of who. supported him and who didn't interesting. so Johnson seems even further to the. right than Jim Jordan and thus I would. imagine very UNP palatable to those 20. or so moderates who had such problems. with Jordan yeah a lot of us in the. Press Corp thought when we heard his. name that you know moderates would stand. against him as they did against Jim.

Jordan but this time that just didn't. happen well why not why would moderates. not object to him well I think there's a. couple reasons some of the moderates we. talked to in the hallways said. essentially they were weighing the. continued dysfunction of the house and. the need to get back to business against. how right-wing Johnson is so was it. worse for them to have Mike Johnson as.

speaker and potentially support a. right-wing candidate when they're from a. district that's more of a swing District. or a purple District or was it worse to. continue the three- ring circus taking. place on Capitol Hill head towards the. government shutdown deny funding for our. allies overseas so you can see how they. looked at the situation and arrived at. the result that it was better for them. to vote for somebody just so they could.

get back to business right you're saying. these moderates start to worry less. about picking the wrong speaker and the. political repercussions of that than. they do about picking no speaker and. being associated with a deeply. dysfunctional Congress because voters. don't like that either that's exactly. right and one thing that differentiates. Johnson from Jordan is that he doesn't. have the baggage in some members views.

as Jordan did you've got to remember Jim. Jordan came to Congress and was. described by a previous Republican. speaker as a legislative terrorist right. and he had blown up a bunch of bills to. fund the government and sort of the. basic bills of keeping the place open. and so there were long memories about. Jordan's misdeeds in the their mind and. Johnson just doesn't have the bad blood.

with his fellow Republicans that Jordan. does and so that combined with the fact. that there's a lot of fatigue on the. hill people are sick of not having a. speaker they're sick of going home on. the weekend and having their. constituents yell at them because. they're so. dysfunctional and all of that built up. to really a Glide path for Mike Johnson. a guy who would have had probably no. chance of becoming speaker a month ago.

to having the unanimous support of his. conference right so I want to just. review The Journey that we have been on. Kevin McCarthy is ousted as Speaker by. these far-right members of the house. just eight of them the first nominee to. replace him ends up being rejected as. insufficiently conservative the second. nominee is knocked out not because he's. not conservative enough Jim Jordan was. but because he's just personally kind of. hated the Third nominee fails because. he's not conservative Enough Tom emmer.

and ultimately the winner is a very very. conservative member Mike Johnson so. there's not a lot of mystery about. ideologically speaking who won here. house conservatives won so how should we. think about why this was such an ugly. 21-day War among people who largely seem. like they're on the same. page in many ways this is really the. first sort of. magga controlled house before this we.

had Democrats in charge of the house or. we had Republican speakers who were more. in line with the old Republican party. right the more business minded wing of. the party who cared about small budgets. and aggressive. military now it's a much more populist. party that's remade in Donald Trump's. image it's people for the most part who. don't like the status status quo who. want to tear down the establishment who.

want to blow things up and so when you. have a ton of people like that in the. same room it's essentially a wrecking. ball that's flying around all the time. and it's unclear who's going to be hit. at any given time and so we saw over the. course of this first year of this. Congress an unprecedented five different. speaker nomin. and then what did they get out of the.

fifth nominee the most conservative the. most hard right the guy who literally. did Donald Trump's bidding in trying to. overturn the election who actually. served as one of his lawyers at one. point in time and as an advisor and in. fact Matt Gates who is the member of. Congress who got Kevin McCarthy kicked. out as speaker goes on Steve bannon's. podcast Steve Bannon a trump Ally it is. going to be a great moment for the house. and you know what at the very end and. boasts that they have had an upgrade at.

speaker and the swamp is on the Run Maga. is ascendant and if if you don't think. that moving from Kevin McCarthy to magam. Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of. this movement and where the power in the. Republican Party truly lies uh then then. you're not paying attention but they are. they've got a more Maga member who is. now leading the United States House of. Representatives but Luke this outcome it. feels like potentially a momentary pause.

in that ever swinging wrecking ball. within Maga house Republican politics. and that pause where everyone can get on. the same page before they begin wrecking. each other again it might be a few. months it might be a few days it might. be a few hours we don't really know and. so how should we think about Mike. Johnson's chances of being a successful. speaker because 21 days ago the first.

chapter of this began a speaker was. ousted that could happen all over again. given everything you just. said right well Mike Johnson has been. able to do something that no other. speaker candidate could do he was able. to unite House Republicans in a way no. one else has he looks like he has the. command of the party but that said this. is a particularly unruly Congress Mike.

Johnson will probably have a grace. period for some period of time but. eventually he's going to have to make. some decisions about keeping the. government open about the debt and it's. hard not to see a scenario where some of. the same complaints and concerns that. the hard right had with Kevin. McCarthy might come back to Mike Johnson.

keep in mind the same role that hard. right Republicans use to alist McCarthy. is still in effect in the Congress so at. any point a member can call can force a. vote to remove a. speaker this Congress has been one that. ends up eating its own and so the test. for Mike Johnson will be. how long can he hold off until they eat.

him. [Music]. too well Luke thank you very much we. appreciate it thank you. [Music]. Michael and this group will deliver for. the American people I said it in the. chamber and I will say it here we're. going to govern well on Wednesday. afternoon about an hour after his.

election speaker Johnson held a brief. news conference on the steps of the. capital we're so grateful I'm so. grateful and so humbled to have gotten a. unanimous vote on the floor by all of my. colleagues here. um Johnson said he would dispense with. the usual ceremonies and celebrations of. a new speaker and immediately get to. work we went through a lot to get here. uh but but we are ready to govern and. that will begin right away way you've. all heard me talk a lot today and I'm. not going to blor the point cuz the Sun.

is bright and it's too warm for the fall. but I'll say this we'll be right. [Music]. back here's what else you need need to. another day at least seven people were.

killed and many more injured in a mass. shooting in the town of Lewiston Maine. where a gunman reportedly opened fire at. a restaurant and bowling alley as of. Thursday morning a massive Manhunt was. underway to capture the shooter who was. caught on camera using what appeared to. be an assault rifle Lewiston Main's. second biggest city is about 40 miles. north of Portland and home to Bates.

College where students were told to. shelter in. place and on Wednesday with little. warning hurricane otus made landfall. near the Mexican resort town of aapco as. a catastrophic Category 5 hurricane. unlike most storms that intensify slowly. and are tracked closely by. meteorologists Otis gains strength with. stunning speed its winds growing by 110.

mph in just 24 hours in interviews and. social media posts residents and. tourists described widespread damage. from the. [Music]. storm today's episode was produced by. Michael Simon Johnson and relle Banja it. was edited by Rachel quer and Lexi di. contains original music by Brad fiser. Dan Powell and Marian Lozano and was.

engineered by Chris Wood our theme music. is by Jim runberg and Ben lansburg of. [Music]. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Michael baboro see you tomorrow. [Music].