Rep. Dan Meuser (R-PA) said he would vote for “the lead candidate,” Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), for speaker of the House.
The Republican Party has a scant one-vote majority in the House of Representatives speaker election. This new Congress will vote on the position on its first day of session on Jan. 3. A speaker will be needed to certify the 2024 election results on Jan. 6 ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Meuser suggested that Republicans should take their complaints to the Department of Government Efficiency rather than taking it out on Johnson.
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“We’re following the Trump agenda, so it should, in many ways, make [Johnson’s] job frankly that much easier. This is what the American people voted for and certainly what I advocate for as part of strengthening our national security, strengthening our economy, bringing stability around the world, and bringing DOGE in. DOGE should satisfy some of the demands of many of our members, and those are some of my demands, too,” Meuser said on Fox Business’s Mornings with Maria Bartiromo.
President-elect Donald Trump named Tesla CEO Elon Musk and entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy to be the volunteer heads of DOGE. While they aren’t government officials, it is their job to create “a lean team of small-government crusaders” to work closely with the White House Office of Management and Budget.
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“But we’ve got other very serious matters. Let’s face it, just in the last 24 hours, we showed how desperately our country needs leadership and a corrective course; not only do we need to move quickly on the speaker, the Senate needs to move quickly on its confirmation,” Meuser said, referring to the terrorist attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans during the New Year’s holiday. “We cannot be negotiating as individuals. We must be negotiating for our country and for the Trump agenda. That’s what the people voted for. That’s what we need to deliver.”
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is one of as many as three Republicans who refuse to commit to voting for Johnson to keep his speakership, even after Trump’s endorsement. Massie is joined by Reps. Bob Good (R-VA) and Victoria Spartz (R-IN).