WASHINGTON — Donald Trump doesn’t reclaim the White House until the new year, but he’s already leaving his mark on the nation’s Capitol — and that has Republicans freaking out.
After the former — and incoming — president derailed the government funding measure House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) negotiated with his Democratic counterparts at the very last minute, Republican senators threw up their hands in self-imposed defeat, as the Capitol devolved into rumors, accusations and bewilderment.
“Mr. Leader, do you know what's up?” Raw Story asked the incoming Senate majority leader Wednesday evening.
“I don’t know,” Sen. John Thune (R-SD) replied after cracking up as he and his entourage made their way from his black, government-issued SUV into the Capitol.
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Thune’s far from alone. In exclusive interviews with 11 GOP senators — along with four Democrats — Raw Story found a common theme: Republicans are miffed and confused.
“I'll ask you what's going on. Maybe you know more than the rest of us,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) — who’s credited with helping the GOP win back control of the Senate from his perch as chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee this election cycle — told Raw Story on his way into the Capitol.
“I know nothing, sir,” Raw Story quipped.
“Well, that makes two of us,” Daines said.
Even senators who won their seats after serving as lowly Senate aides — the senators who know Capitol Hill’s arcane ways; inside, out — are clueless.
“You know what’s going on?” Raw Story asked.
“I would love to know what’s going on,” Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) exclaimed as she made her way to an early evening vote Wednesday. “You all have better information than me, so tell me!”
One of Britt’s colleagues weighed in.
“Well, it looks like we’re on track to shut down,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) told Raw Story.
Even as Democrats still control the Senate until the new year, it’s Republicans in the driver’s seat. Just the Republicans on the other side of the Capitol where the GOP’s already in the majority.
But being in the majority is only half the battle. As former Speaker Kevin McCarthy(R-CA) learned, crossing the aisle to, say, fund the federal government with the support of Democrats can cost the coveted gavel.
A lesson Johnson is re-learning.
“He’s on thin ice?” Raw Story asked.
“Very thin,” Sen. Roger Marshall (R-KS) told Raw Story. “Nobody can do a better job. It is just impossible — it is just impossible with such a small majority. So he'll figure it out, and he'll do the best he can.”
With Elon Musk and company now, seemingly, controlling the direction Trump’s GOP goes, it’s unclear if Johnson will be able to ‘figure it out’ — especially by Friday night’s midnight deadline to avert a government shutdown.
“It’s an embarrassment,” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) exclusively told Raw Story. “And he better fix it fast, because the government’s shutting down.”
That’s left Johnson’s future in doubt.
“Those guys over there need to figure it out. This is Mike Johnson's fault,” Hawley said. “It's 100 percent his fault.”
Earlier Wednesday, Trump turned heads when he demanded a hike to the nation’s debt ceiling as a part of a completely separate government funding bill — a surprising last-minute move that Hawley and other rank-and-file Republicans also blame Johnson for not addressing earlier.
“What do you think about the debt ceiling being thrown in?” Raw Story pressed.
“What that tells me is, he clearly didn't talk to Trump before he started doing this, which is stupid,” Hawley said. “We’ll see.”
One thing was clear Wednesday evening on the Senate side of the Capitol: Senators weren’t sticking around to solve a House of Representatives problem.
“Do you know what's going on?” Raw Story asked.
“Pretty much,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) — the former number two most powerful Senate Republican — told Raw Story as he was pulling his door closed. “I'm getting in my car.”