Allies of Speaker Mike Johnson are urging Donald Trump to reaffirm his support for the Republican leader of the House of Representatives in the hope of heading off a messy battle for the role in the new year.
Should other contenders for the speakership emerge with any significant support following last week’s spending bill battle, it could delay the certification of the president-elect’s own victory, according to some lawmakers.
Democrats have also said that they won’t step in and rescue Johnson this time.
The House Ethics Committee report into former Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida “determined there is substantial evidence” that the former congressman “violated House Rules and other standards of conduct prohibiting prostitution, statutory rape, illicit drug use, impermissible gifts, special favors or privileges, and obstruction of Congress.”
Gaetz sued the committee to block the release of the report that found that he paid thousands of dollars to more than a dozen women — including a 17-year-old girl — for sex, but on Monday, drafts had already been published in several news outlets.
Finally, there is continued international incredulity over Trump’s desire to see the US retake the Panama Canal and buy Greenland, with the latter’s prime minister saying his country will “never be for sale.”
Johnson allies call for Trump to back him to avoid another round of Republican civil war
Should other contenders for the speakership emerge with any significant support following last week’s spending bill battle it could delay the certification of the president-elect’s own victory.
So far, there has been silence on the matter from Mar-a-Lago since Friday night’s vote on a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through mid-March — a struggle that did not bode well for Johnson’s future.
Oliver O’Connell reports.
Oliver O’Connell24 December 2024 13:00
Trump considering attempting to boot Mike Johnson: report
President-elect Donald Trump is considering attempting to boot Speaker Mike Johnson from his post, according to Politico.
This comes after Congress narrowly averted a government shutdown on Friday night.
Trump is reportedly unhappy with the funding deal and that he didn’t get the debt ceiling hike he sought.
“The president is upset — he wanted the debt ceiling dealt with,” a person in Trump’s circle told the outlet.
“In the past couple weeks, we’ve questioned whether [Johnson has] been an honest broker,” another person said.
“I don’t see how Johnson survives,” yet another individual told Politico.
Gustaf Kilander24 December 2024 12:00
Trump declares Elon Musk is ‘not going to be president’ amid ongoing taunts over who’s really in charge
“No, he’s not taking the presidency,” Trump declared in a Sunday night speech. “That’s not happening.”
The president-elect’s snarky remark comes as Democrats have sought to drive a wedge between the world’s richest man and the notoriously thin-skinned Trump by highlighting Musk’s growing influence and describing him as the “real president.” The taunts have only grown following last week’s chaos on Capitol Hill after Musk raged against House Republicans’ original spending bill, prompting lawmakers to race against the clock to strike another deal to prevent the government from shutting down.
Justin Baragona24 December 2024 11:00
Chair of Ethics Committee did not vote to release report
The chair of the Ethics Committee, Republican Rep. Michael Guest said that while he does “not challenge the Committee’s findings,” he did not vote to release the report.
I believe, have publicly stated, and remain steadfast in the position that the House Committee on Ethics lost jurisdiction to release to the public any substantive work product regarding Mr. Gaetz after his resignation from the House on November 14, 2024.
While I do not challenge the Committee’s findings, I did not vote to support the release of the report and I take great exception that the majority deviated from the Committee’s well-established standards and voted to release a report on an individual no longer under the Committee’s jurisdiction, an action the Committee has not taken since 2006.
Representative Gaetz resigned from Congress, withdrew from consideration to serve in the next administration, and declared that he would not seek to be seated in the 119th Congress. The decision to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing practice and is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences.
Michael Guest
Gustaf Kilander24 December 2024 10:00
Biden commutes most federal death row sentences. Here’s the full list
Thirty-seven people on death row had their sentences commutated by President Joe Biden on Monday morning and will now serve life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, rather than face execution.
Maintaining the tradition of offering clemency in the last few weeks of a presidency, Biden exercised his power to remove most inmates from federal death row. Only three people will remain.
It comes a little less than a month before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. Unlike Biden, Trump supports the death penalty and has suggested more people should be given death sentences – though he has not offered specifics on that. Trump restarted federal executions after a 17-year pause during his first term, with 13 being carried out.
Ariana Baio24 December 2024 09:00
Greenland prime minister balks at Trump’s renewed play for territory: ‘We are not for sale’
The leader of Greenland has flat-out rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s renewed interest in purchasing the massive Arctic island from Denmark, insisting that the territory is not on the market.
“Greenland is ours,” Greenland Prime Minister Múte Egede said in a statement on Monday. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
Egede’s comment comes after the incoming president announced that he wanted to revisit the idea of buying the semi-autonomous land from Denmark. During his first term in the White House, Trump expressed a desire to make a “large real estate deal” because “strategically” it would be “very nice.”
Justin Baragona24 December 2024 08:00
Biden cheered by Democrats and civil rights groups for commuting dozens of death row sentences
The White House announced early Monday morning that the president would commute the sentences of 37 inmates awaiting execution in the federal prison system. Now, just three people will remain on death row following the commutations: mass murderers Dylann Roof, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, and Robert Bowers.
John Bowden24 December 2024 06:00
Watch: Ethics report finds ‘substantial evidence’ Matt Gaetz violated statutory rape law
Gustaf Kilander24 December 2024 05:00
‘We are not for sale’: Greenland prime minister balks at Trump’s renewed play for territory
The leader of Greenland has flat-out rejected President-elect Donald Trump’s renewed interest in purchasing the massive Arctic island from Denmark, insisting that the territory is not on the market.
“Greenland is ours,” the territory’s prime minister Múte Egede said in a statement on Monday. “We are not for sale and will never be for sale. We must not lose our long struggle for freedom.”
Oliver O’Connell24 December 2024 04:43