Republicans are worried that a rebellion against House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could put the start of Donald Trump's presidency in jeopardy.
The Louisiana Republican could face a leadership challenge after angering and frustrating his fellow Republicans during last week's negotiations over a stopgap government funding measure, and some of his GOP allies are urging the president-elect to publicly affirm his support to avoid a prolonged fight to replace him, reported Newsweek.
"If we have some kind of protracted fight where we can't elect a speaker — the speaker's not elected, we're not sworn in, and if we're not sworn in, we can't certify the election," said Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL).
Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) suggested that Trump should invite Johnson to celebrate Christmas with him at Mar-a-Lago to affirm his support, and other GOP lawmakers agreed that replacing him as speaker could throw the start of Trump's second term into chaos.
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"To ensure President Trump can take office and hit the ground running on Jan. 20," said Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY), "we must be able to certify the 2024 election on Jan. 6. However, without a speaker, we cannot complete this process."
Johnson has not said he's worried about the leadership vote, although Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) has already said he would vote against him and several other Republicans say they're undecided.But the speaker should not expect Democrats to bail him out.
"There will be no Democrats available to save him or the extreme MAGA Republicans from themselves based on the breaching of a bipartisan agreement that reflected priorities that were good for the American people," said Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY).
Lawmakers are set to vote on electing a speaker Jan. 3, right after they're sworn in, and the House will meet again three days later to certify the results of November's election.
Trump was indicted in the District of Columbia for attempting to interfere with the certification of Joe Biden's election win four years ago, although that case was ended after his re-election. He and some of his allies were also indicted on similar state charges in Georgia.