Lisa Desjardins:
Maneuvering is the right word, Amna.
Walking into the House today, it seemed the odds were against Mike Johnson winning on the first vote, or even today at all. He had 12, at least, members that I knew of who had serious doubts and were ready to vote no. And, in fact, he was losing this race for at least an hour.
Let’s go over those numbers. To become speaker of the House, Johnson needed 218 votes, and, initially, he received only 216. Three Republicans voted against him, voted for someone else. And those members were members of the hard right. All three of them, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Ralph Norman of South Carolina, Keith Self of Oklahoma, prominent fiscal hawks, they care about the debt and deficit.
They think that Johnson botched the last funding deal, and they are someone who they believe that he has not been a strong enough speaker. But over the course of an hour, they kept that vote open. And thanks to phone calls with former President Donald Trump, two of those members switched their vote, and Johnson was able to become speaker on the first vote.
