Mike Johnson is sworn in as US Speaker of the House

Republican Mike Johnson was sworn in as the speaker of the House of Representatives in the US Congress after he won the crucial election F surviving a razor-thin vote after managing to flip some of the undecided the Republican voters who were not willing to support, one of whom was angry and accused him of cutting deals on the spending bills to survive in the house.

The speaker’s election marks a complete control of the house by the Republicans and clears the decks for the confirmation of President elect Donald Trump’s election certification process by the house, a protocol to be fulfilled before his oath taking on January 20th after which he becomes the full-fledged president.

He survived the vote after some lobbying. The final vote count was 218, just the threshold to cross to win the gavel. All democrats present in the house voted against with their full strength of 215.

There were only 219 votes as Matt Gaetz who had resigned his seat in anticipation of taking up his job as Trump’s appointee as the AG, which was not to be, did not come as he had vacated his seat which is now up for election to be filled in.
President-elect Donald Trump had backed Johnson strongly saying he had done a good job so far. He endorsed Johnson for the role of House speaker, saying “a win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party”. The House Speaker is one of the most powerful posts in Washington, controlling the lower chamber of the US Congress, and second in line to the presidency after the vice president.
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, was backed by nearly all Republicans in his bid for re-election. But that success was not without some controversy, BBC reported.

To be elected speaker of the house a candidate needs to garner the majority vote of the house, which is 218, which is what Johnson got in a re-election bid, fraught with uncertainty. Though the Republicans had 220 votes, one was less as a member had resigned bringing the vote count to 219 vs 215. One member had vowed he would not vote, and some others said they were not committed, making the election the riskiest in 100 years. But because of a razor-thin Republican majority in the House, Johnson could only stand to face opposition from two Republicans. Johnson already faced one hard “no” from Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky. “You can pull all my fingernails out. You can shove bamboo up in them. You can start cutting off my fingers. I am not voting for Mike Johnson,” Massie said in a television interview.
Several other Republicans had put themselves in the “undecided” column heading into the vote.
During the initial votes, three of those undecided Republicans voted for other lawmakers over Johnson, preventing him from reaching the 218 votes he needed. Three lawmakers – Thomas Massie of Kentucky, South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman, and Texas Congressman Keith Self – named other options to serve as the next speaker.

That led Johnson to flee the House floor and lobby members to back him. Some 45 minutes later, he returned to the House chamber. Johnson did some successful lobbying as he managed to flip both Norman and Self to change their stance and vote for him, thus winning the crucial vote, a win for the Republicans, the first in the 119th Congress of the house.
The gavel struck and Johnson won re-election. Norman told reporters after the election that he changed his vote after speaking with Johnson in a room outside the House chamber. He said Johnson told him there would be more conservatives at the table during negotiations, fewer deals made between congressional and committee leadership without outside input from other lawmakers and enough time to read bill text before votes are scheduled.

“When we left that small room, he convinced me and Keith (Self),” Norman said. “He (Johnson) said I will do that, just give me the chance. He knew and I knew if it went to the second ballot it was going to get tougher and tougher.” Another player got involved throughout the tense speaker election – President-elect Donald Trump.
Norman spoke with Trump twice during the speaker vote. The first time was when fellow Republican Nancy Mace of South Carolina handed him her phone to speak with the president-elect. The second was while meeting with Johnson, Self, and several others.

“(Trump) is as enthusiastic,” Norman said of the call with the president-elect. “He said, ‘Norman, we have the most opportunity we’ve ever had – the House, Senate, a trifecta, you don’t get that opportunity.’ I said, ‘Mr. President I agree with you, I’m just hoping Mike has got the oomph to pull this off.”

Norman said the president-elect also said Johnson is the only one who is the likely candidate to win the speaker election because of the likeability factor in his favour. Trump had said earlier in his endorsement of Johnson, people like him, people respect him.
Self-told reporters after the vote that he spoke with Trump before and after the speaker election. He said he changed his mind when Johnson pledged there would be more members, including from the far-right House Freedom Caucus, at the negotiating table.
“We shored up the reconciliation team because we know that this will be a heavy lift to get the Trump agenda across the reconciliation line,” he was quoted by the British news agency as saying.

Friday marked the first day of the 119th Congress. Republicans have unified control of Washington, with majorities in both the House and Senate and with Trump returning to the White House later in January. During his acceptance speech, Johnson said that this Congress would champion the idea of America first – a slogan promoted by Trump.

After Trump’s re-election, he said Americans are demanding their interests are put first again. “And we will,” Johnson said.
Voting for a new speaker is the first requirement of the new session of Congress, and without that leader in place, the chamber cannot move on to any other function. This had led to chaos in the past – including when former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy had to go through 15 rounds of voting before he was confirmed to the leadership post.

Minutes before the vote on Friday, Johnson posted on X several of his plans, if elected. He promised to create a “working group comprising independent experts” to work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) where Trump named Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy to lead.

They have already started their function talking about cutting the government work force and trimming it by removing unwanted posts created under Joe Biden in his climate change office. They have also talked about expansion of the existing H1- B VISA program to hire bright and talented engineers from overseas (India, China, and Philippines) especially in the technology sector vehemently opposed by GOP conservatives as being unfavourable to American labour.

Trump has supported them saying he himself had hired H1-Bs on his properties and he liked the programme very much. It’s a complete 360 degree turn from his stand on the visa programme of the 2017 presidency when he introduced regulations to restrict the entry of H1-B visa engineers, thus favouring American technical skill.
Cut to Johnson: That working group, Johnson said, would review existing audits of federal agencies and entities created by Congress and issue a report. “If we want to restore fiscal responsibility, we must start by being transparent about the dollars that are spent, address the issues we find, and then hold those accountable who have misspent funds,” Johnson wrote.