All posts tagged "House Republicans"

Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) has reportedly hit a frustration point and rejected the "talking filibuster" — signaling that President Donald Trump's SAVE America Act no longer has a path forward.

Thune has faced growing pressure from Trump, House and Senate conservative leaders and MAGA influencers to push the legislation forward using the maneuver, but as of Wednesday Thune has publicly said there is no way for Republicans to pass the GOP-backed bill requiring ID and proof of citizenship to vote, according to Punchbowl News. Multiple sources have also said that Thune has shared private frustration with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House Republicans who have continued to press the "talking filibuster."

"It’s yet another self-inflicted wound from a party that can’t seem to settle on a midterm message," Punchbowl News reported. "Republicans are tearing themselves apart over legislation that has captivated Trump’s base but has almost no chance of becoming law. It’s also threatening to sour cross-Capitol relations among top Republicans."...

House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-La.) Republican majority is not only razor-thin, but is also becoming increasingly rebellious, according to a new analysis in the Wall Street Journal.

The Journal's Kimberly A. Strassel wrote Wednesday that Johnson has effectively ceded his power to a group of "moderate extortionists" within the House Republican Conference who continuously extract concessions from him. She specifically singled out Reps. Rob Bresnahan (R-Pa.), Ryan Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) and Ryan Mackenzie (R-Pa.) for "tank[ing] months of hard-fought Republican healthcare effort with one display of indignation."

Strassel observed that those four Republicans were pushing hard for an extension of expiring Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits, which would result in millions of Americans seeing their health insurance premiums spike by a significant amount without a renewal. However, when their effort proved unsuccessful, the group of moderates declined to support a Republican bill and instead threw their weight behind House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. (D-N.Y.)...

Democratic strategist Max Burns argued House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is showing all the signs of an ex-leader.

“Increasingly ignored and overruled by his own caucus, Johnson will enter the new year with none of the influence and power traditionally associated with the speakership,” Burns wrote in a Thursday analysis for MS NOW. “If 2025 proved to be a headache for him, 2026 is shaping up to be a migraine.”

Johnson’s political situation “got a little worse on Wednesday” said Burns, when four swing state Republicans joined Democrats to force a vote on extending the popular Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) expiring tax credits. This effort followed another successful push to override Johnson on the release of the Epstein files. ...

The New Republic reports House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) refused to give a direct answer when asked if he agreed with President Donald Trump’s characterization of thousands of Somali residents — thousands of whom live in Emmer's district — as “garbage.”

Migrant Insider’s Pablo Manríquez confronted Emmer as he walked down a hall, demanding if he agreed with Trump that “5,000 Somali residents in your district in St. Cloud are garbage?”

The New Republic pointed out that the Republican majority whip “offered a weak, political non-answer.”...

More Republicans are sharing their disgust with President Donald Trump's divisive public comments, and some are suggesting it's making it harder for them to do their jobs.

In a Tuesday article for Semafor, reporters Burgess Everett, Eleanor Mueller and Shelby Talcott reported that there is growing discontent on Capitol Hill after Trump's insult of the late actor-director Rob Reiner and Tuesday's Vanity Fair interview with White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, who said the president had an "alcoholic's personality." Republicans are reportedly worried that time is running out for them to enact their agenda as the midterm campaign season approaches, which is expected to consume the bulk of their time as opposed to passing legislation.

"There’s only so much any human being can handle at one time. And when the president says some of the stuff that he says, it’s time-consuming. And it distracts from his work and his agenda, and it distracts from our work," Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-LA) told Semafor. "We need his input right now on a lot of things."...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was recently heard getting into a "heated" argument with one Republican member of the House of Representatives.

On Tuesday, NOTUS' Reese Gorman reported that Johnson was overheard in a closed-door meeting with moderate members of the House Republican Conference. GOP moderates had been meeting with the Speaker to discuss last-minute fixes to extend Affordable Care Act (ACA) tax credits due to expire in less than three weeks, which would cause monthly health insurance premiums to jump significantly for millions of Americans.

In one exchange between Johnson and Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), the New York Republican was heard lamenting to Johnson that Republicans would never get another chance to pass a bill via the reconciliation process (in which the Senate can pass legislation with a simple majority, provided the bill itself pertains to strictly budgetary matters). At that point, the Speaker reportedly erupted at Lawler....