Rep. James Comer (R-KY) is requesting President-elect Donald Trump‘s intervention to prevent a chaotic speakership battle in January.
In an appearance on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures, Comer warned that a critical mass of House Republicans were on the fence about Johnson’s reelection to the speakership.
“We have five Republicans that won’t commit to voting for Mike Johnson — and he can only lose one or two votes,” he said. “It’s a terrible challenge.”
“I strongly encourage Donald Trump to get on the phone with those five or six members who won’t commit to voting for Mike Johnson because all this is going to do is delay us,” he said, adding that the chaos could delay Trump’s election certification.
Comer mentioned how Johnson had no declared opponents for the speakership, making a new election impractical. He said he was encouraging his colleagues to support Johnson.
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) was harsher in his reading, recalling the October 2023 speakership crisis as “the single stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in politics,” adding that a refusal to reelect Johnson would “equally be as stupid.”
“The fact is that these folks are playing with fire,” he said on ABC’s This Week. “And if they think they’re somehow going to get a more conservative speaker, they’re kidding themselves.”
Johnson has found his speakership in jeopardy after a close call with a government shutdown earlier in the month. Hard-line conservatives in the House are now threatening to withhold their votes, the most outspoken of whom is Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who repeated his threat on Monday morning.
“On January 3rd, 2017 Paul Ryan was elected Speaker by every Republican except me. Ryan went on to offer a fake repeal of ObamaCare, increased spending, backed the deep state, and didn’t fund a wall. Two years later we lost the majority and Democrats made a living hell for Trump,” he said in a post on X.
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“Mike Johnson is the next Paul Ryan. On January 3rd, 2025, I won’t be voting for Mike Johnson. I hope my colleague will join me because history will not give America another ‘do-over.’”
However, he hinted that an intervention from Trump could affect his decision.