A couple of more House GOP retirements— South Carolina philanderer Jeff Duncan announced he’s not retiring, just not running again— and the Republicans will transfer the gavel from MAGA Mike to Hakeem Jeffries. The oldest Republican in the House, Hal Rogers (R-KY), 86, was in a car accident and he’s in a physical rehab center. He represents the reddest district in Kentucky; Trump beat Biden there 79.1% to 19.7%. And Duncan’s district is the reddest in South Carolina, Trump having bested Biden 68.0% to 30.6%.
I’m more interested in what Republicans are doing to themselves. Trump is on the warpath against anyone who endorsed DeSantis, like House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good. His district is very red… but not red enough to ignore. Trump is hinting he’s backing MAGA lunatic state Sen. John McGuire in the primary. Trump took just 53.4% of the vote there and the partisan lean is R+14. McGuire has been hammering Good in interviews and on social media, accusing him of “hating Trump,” being a “Never-Trumper” and a “RINO,” who is working to help Democrats. If McGuire displaces Good, it would give whicheverDemocrat wins the primary— Gary Terry or Gloria Witt— a better chance to take advantage of the GOP chaos and rancor.
Meanwhile far right Arizona freshman, Eli Crane, warned MAGA Mike that he and his extremist colleagues will take the gavel away from him, just like that did from Kevin McCarthy.
"It's extremely frustrating to watch" Johnson and GOP leaders fail to use leverage points like government funding to secure the border and curb spending, the Arizona Republican said Wednesday, predicting the speaker and House Republicans "will get rolled, just like we always do" as negotiations on both issues continue with the White House and the Senate.
"If things continue to go the way that they're going, do I think that's possible outcome? Absolutely," Crane said when asked about a potential effort to oust Johnson.
Crane, who was one of eight Republicans who voted to depose former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, declined to say whether or not he personally would lead a motion to vacate— the procedure used to oust Johnson's predecessor— but said "it's a good tool" that should remain on the table.
"I may be a part of something in the future, we'll see," he said. "Do I want to be? Absolutely not. I didn't want to be with Kevin McCarthy."
Crane joins Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) who have also threatened to try to boot Johnson if he squanders conservative priorities and caves to Democrats during ongoing spending and border negotiations.
Johnson has already ignored conservatives' demands in agreeing to a $1.66 trillion spending limit and a short-term funding extension into March to buy more time to write appropriations bills to that figure. Hardliners oppose the stopgap measure, having wanted to use Friday's deadline to fund part of the government as leverage to force Democrats to agree to strict border policy changes.
Greene's threat centers around her opposition to U.S. aid to Ukraine.
Others have been less alarming in their criticism of the speaker, but have made it clear they won't be happy with the nascent leader— whose control over a very slim GOP majority with intense warring factions is tenuous— for taking a bipartisan path to avoid a partial shutdown.
House Freedom Caucus member Warren Davidson said last week after Johnson agreed to the $1.66 trillion spending limit that the Louisiana Republican "should have never been hired" when asked about the possibility of removing him as speaker.
It’s hard to imagine that any elected Republicans pay a whit of attention to ridiculous South Carolina closet case Lindsey Graham, but yesterday he was warning House Republicans “not to play political games with the current immigration negotiations because they won’t get a better deal down the road under a potential second Donald Trump presidency. ‘To those who think that if President Trump wins, which I hope he does, that we can get a better deal— you won’t,’ Sen. Lindsey Graham told reporters Wednesday. ‘You got to get 60 votes in the United States Senate. To my Republican friends: To get this kind of border security without granting a pathway to citizenship is really unheard of. So if you think you’re going to get a better deal next time, in ’25, if President Trump’s president, Democrats will be expecting a pathway to citizenship for that,’ he said. ‘So to my Republican colleagues, this is a historic moment to reform the border.’ Senate Minority Whip John Thune (R-SD) echoed Graham's view.” No one in the House cares what he has to say either.
Yesterday the Republicans brought up a deceptive resolution: Denouncing the Biden administration's open-borders policies, condemning the national security and public safety crisis along the southwest border, and urging President Biden to end his administration's open-borders policies. Biden doesn’t have any open border policies but it was no surprise that every Republican in the House voted for it. It may have been a surprise though that 14 worthless conservative Democrats joined them, these 14 worthless conservative Democrats:
Colin Allred (New Dem-TX)
Yadira Caraveo (New Dem-CO)
Angie Craig (New Dem-MN)
Henry Cuellar (Blue Dog-TX)
Don Davis (Blue Dog-NC)
Jared Golden (Blue Dog-ME)
Vicente Gonzalez (Blue Dog-TX)
Greg Landsman (New Dem-OH)
Susie Lee (New Dem-NV)
Jared Moskowitz (New Dem-FL)
Wiley Nickel (Blue Dog-NC)
Mary Peltola (Blue Dog-AK)
Marie Perez (Blue Dog-WA)
Eric Sorensen (New Dem-IL)
On Wednesday, Pramila Jayapal, addressed her colleagues on the floor, noting that “the Republican majority has brought up a pointless resolution that does nothing to address the situation at the border and repeats the same tired and untrue talking points about the border. Let’s be clear, the border is not open. No matter how many times my Republican colleagues repeat it, it will not make it true. But every time Republicans go on TV with these false claims, Republicans empower the cartels and make it easier for them to prey on families and children desperately seeking refuge. Let’s also be clear that Republicans have no interest in doing anything to ‘fix’ the border because they WANT to keep chaos at the border until the election. They WANT to use immigrants as a political tool to ramp up fear and xenophobia in the run up to the election. Don’t just take it from me, take it from my Republican colleagues themselves. On the issue of immigration Rep Nehls said: ‘I’m not willing to do too damn much right now to help a Democrat and to help Joe Biden's approval rating.’ And here’s what Rep. Crenshaw said about the Republicans holding Ukraine aid hostage for unworkable border policies: ‘Some might even be afraid of giving up the border as a campaign issue. They don’t want a solution.’ And that is the truth. Republicans don’t want a solution. That is why, time and time again, when Republicans had a chance to support more resources and personnel for the border, they voted NO. In 2021 and 2023 nearly every current House Republican voted against providing additional funding to increase staffing and resources at ports of entry for to combat smuggling of people and drugs. The president’s supplemental funding request for the border includes money for more immigration judges and asylum officers so we can more quickly process people. It has money for cities to help people work and support themselves as they wait for their immigration papers to be processed. But Republicans won’t agree to that. Why? Because it WOULD help make the situation at the border better. And they don’t want that under any circumstance. What they want is to continue the cruelty. The cruelty of seeing migrants fleeing horrific circumstances die thanks to Republican Governors who use their own military to block Border Patrol agents from doing their jobs and saving lives. The cruelty of blaming immigrants for everything just to try and win elections. The cruelty of separating mothers from their babies. That’s the Republican playbook.”
Even as a potential Senate compromise has yet to be inked, hard-right House Republicans have threatened to kill the deal that's designed to unlock support for new U.S. aid to Ukraine.
“There’s no compromising our border security,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene told NBC News in response to GOP senators. “There’s going to be a much better situation under Trump’s administration. We’ll bring back ‘Remain in Mexico.’ And we’re going to deport illegal aliens.”
Greene said she would personally file a “motion to vacate” and force a vote to overthrow House Speaker Mike Johnson if he cuts a deal to fund Ukraine, no matter what immigration provisions it contains. “We can’t fund Ukraine,” she said, calling it “an absolute no-go— that would be a reason to vacate.”
Some House conservatives don’t want to give President Joe Biden a victory on an issue like immigration, where he’s politically vulnerable heading into a likely rematch with Trump this fall.
“The worst thing we could do is pass something that’s border security in name only, similar to what’s been reported that the Mayorkas-Lankford deal is,” said House Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good (R-VA) referring to the ongoing Senate negotiations with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, who is deeply unpopular on the right, and the GOP's lead negotiator, Sen. Jim Lankford of Oklahoma. “That would be terrible because it wouldn’t win for the American people, it wouldn’t secure the border, and it would give the Democrats political cover for the border crisis that they have intentionally created.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) said it would be “immoral” to reject a deal for partisan reasons. “You don’t knowingly make this country less safe for political points.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell echoed the warnings that even if Republicans win full control of government, they wouldn't get a single Democratic vote for such a deal.
