On Friday, House Speaker Mike Johnson stood with former President Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida for a picture that spoke a thousand words. They showed unity at a crucial point in Johnson's term to introduce a new GOP "election integrity" bill.
As Johnson tries to protect his speakership from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump, the likely Republican presidential candidate, told reporters that Johnson is doing a "really good job under very tough circumstances." Johnson needed this support much more than anyone else. Trump said that he gets along great with Greene, but he also made it clear that House Republicans should not get into another long fight for the speaker's gavel any time soon.
"We are getting along very well with the speaker and I get along very well with Marjorie," he said. "We now have a speaker. It was a very difficult process to choose him." It does not look like it will be easy for any person. He is doing about as well as you are going to do, in my opinion. There is no doubt that Marjorie gets that.
At first glance, the press meeting seemed to be about the new "election integrity" bill that Johnson said House Republicans will soon start working on. In the still-unreleased bill, the speaker said that voters would have to show proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The bill would also close gaps in state voter registration rules that let voters say they are citizens without having to "prove" it. Johnson also said that states would have to take anyone who is not a citizen off of the voting rolls.
He linked the two problems by talking about the big number of refugees coming to the U.S. in recent years.
"The House Republicans are introducing a bill that will require proof of citizenship to vote," he said. I think it makes sense. No one else should be able to vote in U.S. elections, that is what we all agree on. There are so many illegal immigrants in the country that even if only one in 100 voted, that person could cast hundreds of thousands of votes.
Non-citizens have not been able to vote in federal elections for many years. The Trump-backed Heritage Foundation keeps a record that only shows 25 cases of people who are not citizens trying to vote in federal elections in the last 20 years.
Back in Washington, D.C., Greene has said he will try to get Johnson removed from office because of spending on government and possible help to Ukraine, but no other House Republicans have joined him. A rule that former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to in order to get his short-lived speakership allows a single member to force a vote to remove the speaker.
Johnson has also had a hard time bringing his divided Republican party together since he took over after McCarthy was fired last year. This week, a group of conservatives rose up again and stopped a bill that would have given the government more monitoring powers. It was finally a shorter form of the bill that passed on Friday.
Prior to Johnson's visit to Mar-a-Lago, Rep. Bennie Thompson, who is the head of the House committee that looked into the attack on the Capitol on January 6, issued a statement through the Biden campaign in which he called Trump "a threat to our democracy and a danger to our Constitution."
"Donald Trump and Mike Johnson do not care about election integrity — they care only about helping Trump's campaign of revenge and retribution to regain power at all costs," said Thompson.
This week, Greene said again that she would try to get a vote on Johnson's removal, but she has not said when she might do it. Her threats come at a time when Johnson is under more and more pressure to hold a vote on whether to give Ukraine more help, which Greene strongly opposes.
This week, Johnson told the Christian Broadcasting Network that he "does not harbor any ill will toward Marjorie." However, he said that a stalemate in Congress is bad for the Republican Party and Trump's chances in 2024. Following McCarthy's removal in the fall, the House did not work for several weeks.
"We have got to demonstrate the American people that we can keep the train on the tracks," he said. So, right now, making a move to quit and removing the speaker is the last thing we need to show the country. That is what will happen if we shut down Congress. They are going to blame us. In a way, it would hurt our chances of getting a bigger majority, as well as the chances of our party and President Trump's election.
As Johnson tries to protect his speakership from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump, the likely Republican presidential candidate, told reporters that Johnson is doing a "really good job under very tough circumstances." Johnson needed this support much more than anyone else. Trump said that he gets along great with Greene, but he also made it clear that House Republicans should not get into another long fight for the speaker's gavel any time soon.
"We are getting along very well with the speaker and I get along very well with Marjorie," he said. "We now have a speaker. It was a very difficult process to choose him." It does not look like it will be easy for any person. He is doing about as well as you are going to do, in my opinion. There is no doubt that Marjorie gets that.
At first glance, the press meeting seemed to be about the new "election integrity" bill that Johnson said House Republicans will soon start working on. In the still-unreleased bill, the speaker said that voters would have to show proof of citizenship in order to register to vote. The bill would also close gaps in state voter registration rules that let voters say they are citizens without having to "prove" it. Johnson also said that states would have to take anyone who is not a citizen off of the voting rolls.
He linked the two problems by talking about the big number of refugees coming to the U.S. in recent years.
"The House Republicans are introducing a bill that will require proof of citizenship to vote," he said. I think it makes sense. No one else should be able to vote in U.S. elections, that is what we all agree on. There are so many illegal immigrants in the country that even if only one in 100 voted, that person could cast hundreds of thousands of votes.
Non-citizens have not been able to vote in federal elections for many years. The Trump-backed Heritage Foundation keeps a record that only shows 25 cases of people who are not citizens trying to vote in federal elections in the last 20 years.
Back in Washington, D.C., Greene has said he will try to get Johnson removed from office because of spending on government and possible help to Ukraine, but no other House Republicans have joined him. A rule that former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to in order to get his short-lived speakership allows a single member to force a vote to remove the speaker.
Johnson has also had a hard time bringing his divided Republican party together since he took over after McCarthy was fired last year. This week, a group of conservatives rose up again and stopped a bill that would have given the government more monitoring powers. It was finally a shorter form of the bill that passed on Friday.
Prior to Johnson's visit to Mar-a-Lago, Rep. Bennie Thompson, who is the head of the House committee that looked into the attack on the Capitol on January 6, issued a statement through the Biden campaign in which he called Trump "a threat to our democracy and a danger to our Constitution."
"Donald Trump and Mike Johnson do not care about election integrity — they care only about helping Trump's campaign of revenge and retribution to regain power at all costs," said Thompson.
This week, Greene said again that she would try to get a vote on Johnson's removal, but she has not said when she might do it. Her threats come at a time when Johnson is under more and more pressure to hold a vote on whether to give Ukraine more help, which Greene strongly opposes.
This week, Johnson told the Christian Broadcasting Network that he "does not harbor any ill will toward Marjorie." However, he said that a stalemate in Congress is bad for the Republican Party and Trump's chances in 2024. Following McCarthy's removal in the fall, the House did not work for several weeks.
"We have got to demonstrate the American people that we can keep the train on the tracks," he said. So, right now, making a move to quit and removing the speaker is the last thing we need to show the country. That is what will happen if we shut down Congress. They are going to blame us. In a way, it would hurt our chances of getting a bigger majority, as well as the chances of our party and President Trump's election.
