House speaker fiasco: Republican Mike Johnson becomes FOURTH GOP nominee in three weeks after Whip Tom Emmer drops out

Republican Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson is the party’s fourth choice for speaker candidate, winning 128 votes in an internal vote at the conference.

Johnson is the party’s second nominee, after Whip Tom Emmer dropped out when 26 Republicans voted against him in an internal vote even after he became the nominee.

Johnson defeated Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who received 29 votes, and forty-four votes went to candidates who weren’t even in the running: 43 for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and one for Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan.

Johnson can only afford to lose four Republican votes in the House of Representatives and become the next speaker. Republicans will now move to a roll call vote to see who is known to support Johnson now that he is the nominee.

Criticisms of Johnson include that placing him in the speakership would give Louisiana two leadership spots, along with Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

This also includes his conservative voting record and the fact that he led an amicus brief signed by more than a hundred Republicans in a lawsuit in Texas to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

Johnson’s nomination came as an idea circulating among Republicans was a joint speakership between former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and failed speaker candidate Jordan. Some Republicans opposed the idea.

“It’s not in the Constitution,” said McCarthy supporter John Duarte, R-Calif.

“It’s the worst idea I’ve ever heard,” said Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas.

House Republicans hit another new low on Tuesday as their latest bid for the presidency lasted just four hours — after Donald Trump called him a “Globalist RINO.”

Majority Whip Tom Emmer became the latest victim of Congress’s clown show when he withdrew from the running and upended the party’s bid to install a speaker after 21 days.

The former hockey coach defeated eight candidates and won the support of the majority of the conference in a closed-door vote, but just hours later he was out.

There is still no end in sight to the farce that began three weeks ago when eight rebel Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote.

Congress remains paralyzed and cannot pass legislation until a president is elected.

Although he was elected candidate, Emmer did not receive enough support from fellow Republicans to reach the 217 votes needed to win the House of Representatives. Twenty-six Republican lawmakers said they would not vote for him — well more than the four he could afford to lose.

And his downfall became even greater after he was targeted by Donald Trump about Truth Social.

“I have many great friends who want to be Speaker of the House of Representatives, and some of them are truly great fighters. RINO Tom Emmer, who I don’t know well, is not one of them,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“He never respected the power of a Trump endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA – MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! He fought me all the time and even spent more time defending Ilhan Omar than me. He is completely out of touch with Republican voters.”

Emmer has called his fellow Minnesotan Omar “the face of anti-Semitism in the Democratic Party.”

Trump continued, “I think he’s learned his lesson now because he says he’s totally pro-Trump, but who can ever know for sure? Did he only change because he needed to to win? The Republican Party cannot take that risk because the America First Voters are not there. Voting for a globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake!

A Trump ally told DailyMail.com that Emmer’s vote in favor of the Equality Act – in support of same-sex marriage – is seen as a “slippery slope” for social conservatives concerned about the rise of men competing in women’s sports and other issues.

He also voted to certify the 2020 election — contributing to some “never Bucket” votes.

Just a day ago, Trump said at an event in New Hampshire that he “always got along” with Emmer.

The 26 Republicans who voted against Emmer largely came from the Trump-aligned, far-right Freedom Caucus. But Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., the infamous McCarthy ouster and staunch Trump supporter, had pushed Emmer’s candidacy.

He seemed to change his tune after Trump’s cry to undermine Emmer’s bid.

“It is very important that the Speaker of the House of Representatives has a good relationship with the leader of our party, which is Donald Trump,” Gaetz said later Tuesday.

After Trump’s post, another Republican, Florida Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, said came out against Emmer.

She proposed Rep. Mark Green, R-Tenn., who leads the House Homeland Security Committee.

Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who ran against Emmer for the whip, also attacked the Minnesota Republican after the vote, calling him the “most liberal member of the leadership.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., blasted Emmer on X after Trump’s post.

“Today I voted against Tom Emmer in all voting rounds, including the spoken roll-call vote, because he has a voting record that I cannot support,” she said.

“He voted for the Democratic gay marriage bill, voted with Democrats to overturn President Trump’s transgender military ban, voted for every cent of Ukrainian funding, once supported Soros’ national popular vote program and voted to elect Biden to be certified in 2020.’

Emmer’s decision to resign comes after 21 days without a speaker in the House of Representatives.

Reps. Kevin Hern, R-Ala., and Mike Johnson, R-La., have already signaled their intention to run for the speaker position again. They ran and lost against Emmer earlier Tuesday.

Earlier this month, Gaetz launched a successful motion to leave, where eight Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to impeach McCarthy.

On Monday, Republicans started with nine candidates, but they whittled down the pack until Emmer captured 117 votes — more than the 110 votes needed to secure the majority — and GOP Conference Vice Chairman Mike Johnson, R-La., who got 97, defeated. becomes the designated speaker. Five votes went to “other” candidates and one lawmaker voted “present.”