House Republicans were hoping for a fresh start in the new year. But when they returned to the Capitol this week, they faced the very same problems that plagued the party last year: a slim majority, a rebellious right wing, and an imminent threat of a government shutdown.
In addition, deep-rooted resentment over the ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy continues to fuel bad blood within the party, contributing to the re-emergence of intraparty feuds into the public eye.
The tensions escalated Wednesday, when a group of conservatives forced a procedural vote and froze House business in protest of a bipartisan spending deal reached by House Speaker Mike Johnson with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. It boiled. It used to be rare for lawmakers to reject procedural votes from their own party, but hardline tactics have become more commonplace since Republicans won a majority last year.
And hours earlier, the House Republican meeting at the Capitol turned into a circus when Hunter Biden made a surprise and dramatic appearance before the House Oversight Committee. The House Oversight Committee was considering a resolution charging him with contempt of Congress. for ignoring a Congressional subpoena. With the president’s son sitting in the audience, the proceedings devolved into a shouting match, with Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina demanding the president’s son be arrested and saying, “You don’t have a ball.” Meanwhile, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie called for the arrest of the president’s son. Taylor Greene of Georgia displayed a censored nude photo of Hunter Biden that appeared to be with a woman.
01:21 – Source: CNN
See the moment chaos broke out when Hunter Biden appeared at the hearing
The whole scene overshadowed the Republicans’ first impeachment hearings against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, which were taking place at the same time. As President Joe Biden’s impeachment inquiry struggles to find evidence, Republicans are renewing their focus on impeaching Biden administration officials over the border crisis.
House Republicans are currently in a familiar predicament for majorities, struggling to find agreement on even the basic functions of governance.
“America is not benefiting from the intraparty fights that are going on right now,” said Republican Rep. Steve Womack, a veteran appropriator. “The election is coming up and a lot of things that are happening right now are probably going to influence the outcome.”
Womack decried blowing up procedural votes in the House as a way to express dissatisfaction, saying when he came to Congress it was a big “no, no.”
“It’s only recently that we’ve learned that it’s OK to get rid of the rules. They’re doing it with impunity,” Womack said. “That’s the Frankenstein we’ve spent the past year building. We created this monster and now we have to live with it.”
“It’s a shame we can’t do more,” he added.
The whole thing is thrown into chaos and left to clean up as Prime Minister Johnson tries to avoid a partial government shutdown on January 19th and unite Congress ahead of a presidential election year in which control of the House of Representatives will be up for grabs. There is. And Mr Johnson has less margin for error and less experience in governing than his predecessor.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has faced fierce criticism from the right over his leadership, and while hardliners have not said they are prepared to remove him from office at this time, they have stood up and asked new Chancellor Johnson to cause headaches. has made clear that it is prepared to bring Other method.
Rep. Warren Davidson of Ohio walked out of the Republican conference early Wednesday morning, complaining that “at this point, the Speaker has no intention of doing anything other than surrender.”
Asked whether Johnson should lose his job over the spending deal he struck with the Senate, Davidson, who has lobbied fellow Ohio congressman Jim Jordan to win the speakership, said: He should never have been hired.”
Prime Minister Boris Johnson defended his efforts to forge a deal amid a narrow majority and a divided government, speaking privately on Wednesday with Republican MPs unhappy with his handling of government funding negotiations. We had a meeting.
“This is minority life. We’re all working together. We’re going to make it,” Johnson told CNN on Wednesday.
Asked if he was worried about the way the Speaker held the gavel, Mr Johnson said: “I’m not worried at all.” I just met with all of them and they are close friends of mine and we agree on principles. I’ve been a die-hard conservative all my life. We want to win as many policies as possible. …But in reality there is only a small majority. Therefore, in such a situation you cannot get everything you want. ”
But behind closed doors, Mr Johnson’s message was more direct. He implored Republicans not to hurt themselves or each other on social media and encouraged them to air their grievances privately, according to people familiar with the meeting.
It’s easy to understand why Mr Johnson wants to keep internal party disputes out of public view. Democrats are capitalizing on internal Republican feuds, with one House Democrat calling new lawmaker pins handed out just before Republican leadership suffered an embarrassing defeat in the House floor the only “tangible” Republican They scoffed at it, calling it an accomplishment.
Democrats are also trying to draw attention to Republicans’ own frustrations with the lack of results. Rep. Jamie Raskin (Maryland), the top Democrat on the oversight committee, echoed recent comments from Republican Rep. Andy Biggs (Ariz.) that Republicans have “nothing” to campaign for. This caused an uproar from the right. of the aisle.
Greene, a McCarthy ally, is another Republican who shamelessly criticizes her own party. In a recent interview with CNN, she listed one by one a long list of dissatisfaction with the handling of Mr. Johnson and the Republican conference, citing conservative voters furious at the failure of the Republican majority to deliver on policy. He said that the new chairman is claiming that he was defeated. Democrats are participating in many important negotiations.
“But the public is saying this at home: We don’t want to see a Republican speaker of the House tied up in closed-door meetings,” Greene said.
She continued: “That’s not what we want from the speaker. Otherwise, what’s the difference between Nancy Pelosi holding the gavel and us holding the majority?”
As chaos unfolded on the Hill Wednesday, Republican Representative Thomas Massey of Kentucky posted a photo of Mr. McCarthy holding the speaker’s gavel to X with the caption, “Do you want to see me yet?” .
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, who led the effort to oust Mr. McCarthy, responded to Mr. Massey’s post, saying, “We don’t miss Mr. McCarthy,” as hardliners rage against Mr. Johnson. I reacted.
The exchanges highlight growing rifts within House Republicans and the criticism that has continued in the months since Mr. McCarthy’s historic ouster.
Those who opposed the ex-speaker’s removal, despite derailing the House for weeks in October, have only returned to the very starting point, facing the same funding deal that McCarthy originally struck with Democrats. , criticizing Mr. McCarthy’s detractors.
“So our members now think that if we bring in someone new, things will change. We have to face reality,” said the Florida Republican congressman, a staunch ally of Mr. McCarthy. Carlos Jimenez told CNN. “And they don’t face reality. This is where we ended up all along.”
“We are the majority, but somehow we can’t be together. We can’t get our act together,” Jimenez added.
Another supporter of the former speaker, Republican Representative Don Bacon of Nebraska, said Mr. McCarthy’s deal was fair and that withdrawing from it would only delay the inevitable.
“I feel like we took a four or five month detour to get where we were supposed to be all along. We had an agreement and we should have stuck to the agreement,” Bacon told CNN. .
But the finger-pointing goes both ways.
Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett, one of eight Republicans who voted to remove Mr. McCarthy as speaker, said Mr. McCarthy’s Republican allies are trying to undermine Mr. Johnson’s chairmanship. However, this is a sign that there is a deep-rooted sense of distrust within the meeting.
“I don’t think he’s crazy. I think there are a lot of people who want to see him fail,” Burchett said. “I think there are still people who are loyal to Kevin McCarthy and just want to say, ‘I told you so,’ and don’t care if they destroy the country or not.”
But no one seems to be calling for Johnson to be removed from his post as he finds himself in a similar predicament as his predecessor and questions about his leadership grow.
Rep. Matt Rosendale (Montana), one of 13 House Republicans who rebelled against Republican leadership and suspended proceedings on the House floor on Wednesday, said, , I’m not saying our intent is to threaten Chairman Johnson’s job,” he told reporters. .
CNN’s Haley Talbot and Sam Fossum contributed to this report.
