Mike Johnson Roasted for Not Being Able to Control His Own Party
Congress has until September 30 to pass a bill that continues to fund the government, but that doesn’t mean that Republicans are all in on a solution.
Fourteen Republicans voted against an iteration of the bill on Wednesday, upending a floundering effort led by House Speaker Mike Johnson to include the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act, a piece of legislation that would require proof of citizenship in order to vote, in the continuing resolution at the behest of Donald Trump. Five House Democrats voted for the SAVE Act in July before it was rolled into the continuing resolution, but just three remained after Wednesday.
“I’m very disappointed it didn’t pass,” Johnson told Fox News’s Sean Hannity on Wednesday. “We ran the right play, we came a little bit short of the goal line, so now we’ll go back to the playbook, we’ll draw it up. We’re already hearing good ideas from our members. And we got time to fix this, and we’ll get it done.”
But despite Johnson’s efforts, he’s still catching flack for the political theater.
“Let me ask you, you keep saying it’s the right play, and you can’t get every Republican to vote for it,” prompted Hannity. “That’s your own party. What are their objections, and how do you get them on board?”
“Well look, there’s a range of objections. Some people look for the perfect piece of legislation. Some people are philosophically opposed to continuing resolutions. Look, I’m one of those. I don’t like this,” Johnson said, before deflecting the blame of months of House chaos onto Democrats in the Senate, claiming Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is the reason why Congress hasn’t passed a dozen appropriations bills that continue to fund the government the traditional way.
Johnson: We ran the right play..
— Acyn (@Acyn) September 19, 2024
Hannity: You keep saying it's the right play and you can’t get every Republican to vote for it. That's your own party. pic.twitter.com/jsKlZnrfU3
Johnson has cryptically alluded to a “plan B” for finding a funding solution but has refused to share the details, further frustrating members of his own party. That could include a six-month continuing resolution, which defense leaders have warned against. That measure would also be stripped of the SAVE Act, which could translate into lost votes from Trumpian loyalists and force Johnson to turn to Democrats for a funding solution.
One unidentified GOP lawmaker told Axios Wednesday that Johnson is “not where the conference is.”
Even if the stopgap bill does manage to scrape by the House, its chances of passing through the Senate are slim to none, setting the stage for an ominously familiar experience to that which preceded former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s exit.
“We now have only a few days left for House Republicans to come to their senses, come to the table, and come together with Democrats to craft a bipartisan agreement,” Schumer said after Wednesday’s House vote.