Conservative judge Michael Luttig warned Monday that President Donald Trump seems likely to push Congress into a "high noon" scenario if the midterms don't go well for Republicans.
If public polling is any indication, Democrats could win both the House of Representatives and the Senate after the midterms, which would significantly imperil the Trump administration. Trump seems to have preemptively dispatched his son-in-law Jared Kushner to negotiate some kind of truce with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), as reports of a meeting between the two men have rankled political analysts across the spectrum.
Luttig warned on a new episode of "The Court of History" podcast that a midterm wipeout for Republicans makes what he describes as "the final battle for America's democracy" all the more likely. The battle, he claimed, would take place on January 3, 2027.
That's the day that the 120th Congress is due to be sworn in. But that assumes that Republicans will agree to seat the newly elected Democrats. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has already shown a proclivity to delaying the certification of duly elected members after he held up Rep. Adelita Grijalva's (D-AZ) swearing-in for 50 days in 2025.
Congress adjourns at "high noon" on January 3, which means that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is no longer technically in charge of seating new members. In that scenario, the House Clerk would notify elected members that they have been seated. Luttig warned that Republicans may try to corrupt this process to maintain power after the midterms.
"There are already discussions around the country that Mike Johnson would fire the existing clerk and replace that clerk with a loyalist," Luttig said.
That poses a problem for newly elected members representing states with election conspiracists working in the halls of power, Luttig added. If the states refuse to certify a member's election, then the House Clerk would not list those members on the roll to be notified of their seating.
Trump hinted at this possibility in February when he told MAGA media personality Dan Bongino that Republicans needed to control the midterms to win the elections, a statement Luttig described as "breathtaking."