A compliant House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) could do what President Donald Trump is struggling to do: make sure the GOP comes out on top in November.
According to a New York Times column from legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin, Rep. Joseph Morelle (D-NY) is raising the alarm over what he calls a "disaster scenario" where Johnson fires the clerk of the House who schedules new members to be sworn in on Jan. 3, 2027.
The mechanism for election overturning is deceptively simple, Toobin wrote. Democrats could win the House in November, but Trump could simply declare the election fraudulent and refuse to acknowledge Democratic victories. Then, at Trump's direction, Speaker Johnson could fire current House Clerk Kevin McCumber — a nonpartisan official who has served under both Republican and Democratic leadership and is generally regarded as scrupulously fair.
Johnson could replace McCumber with a partisan GOP operative willing to manipulate the roll of incoming members. This Republican loyalist could then certify Republican victories in races Democrats actually won.
"While the speaker does have the unilateral power to remove the clerk, his choice for a permanent replacement would have to be approved by a vote of House members," Toobin elaborated. "Mr. Morelle said that in that case, Speaker Johnson might not be able to persuade his slim Republican majority to replace Mr. McCumber."
"You'd have a number of members who are retiring, who I think would no longer be beholden to Johnson or the president, who I think would take a very, very dim view of efforts to overturn the election," Morelle added as a caveat.
But the real nightmare involves timing, the legal analyst explained. Unlike the Senate, a continuing body that operates seamlessly between Congresses, the House ceases to exist at noon on Jan. 3 following each election. No member remains in office unless they're sworn in again.
"This is why any delay tactics, like those conceived by President Trump’s lawyers in the 2020 election, could have a particularly bad outcome for the House," Toobin warned.
