“He’s Cooked”: Republicans Say This Is Mike Johnson’s Last Rodeo

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson’s future hold on the speakership is looking tenuous as a government funding bill, tied to MAGA-backed legislation to address the already illegal and “ vanishingly rare ” phenomenon of noncitizen voting, is expected to fail on Wednesday.

Between opposition from several House Republicans and the Democratic Senate’s staunch opposition to the controversial legislation attached to the spending bill, Johnson’s efforts to pass the package appear futile.

As the House speaker endures this government funding debacle and faces harsh criticisms of his leadership from fellow House Republicans, NOTUS reports that his speakership in the next Congress hangs in the balance, “assuming Republicans hang on to the majority and Johnson even tries to be speaker again.”

Per a report in NOTUS Wednesday, Representative Ralph Norman said that Republican lawmakers hoping to gain the speakership are “jockeying into positions.”

“There’s a lot of members that are frustrated,” Representative Greg Steube told NOTUS last week, when Mike Johnson pulled the package from the House floor as it became clear the votes just weren’t there. “Depending on what the majority looks like in January or after November, I certainly think it’s going to be challenging for him to get 218 on the floor.”

Representative Clay Higgins, who is “sympathetic to Johnson’s efforts” and authored the government funding and noncitizen voting legislation, waxed somewhat poetic about the package and Johnson’s predicament: “Basically, like, the shifting sands of the conference did not ultimately create perhaps the beach that we prefer.… This town is trying to eat that man alive.”

An anonymous lawmaker put it more plainly. “I think he’s cooked.”