Democrats are ready for Trump and Republican congressional leadership to try anything to stay in power. Mike Johnson’s term as Speaker ends at noon on January 3, 2027. Usually, new members are sworn in, then the new Congress is gavelled in, then votes are held for the Speaker of the House election.
As the nation recently witnessed with the House Republicans’ Kevin McCarthy fiasco, where the vote to elect McCarthy descended into chaos, the new Congress can’t function without a Speaker.
On MS NOW, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) was asked if he is worried about Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader John Thune doing Trump’s bidding and refusing to seat Democrats who won seats in the House and Senate.
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Alicia Menendez asked Booker, “ What do you think happens if the President of the United States calls Speaker Johnson, calls Leader Thune and says, “Do this for me. Get this done?”
Sen. Booker answered, “Well, I’ve watched Speaker Johnson practice this advanced form of yoga that I’ve never seen before where he’ll bend over backwards and do whatever the President of the United States tells him to do. We’ve seen how he has dragged his feet to seat people that duly won elections. So I’m tired of the rhetoric. Show me that you are more loyal to the people than to a president; you’re more loyal to the Constitution than Donald Trump’s corruption, and I have not seen that from him. So I, I’m, I’m telling everybody right now, anything is possible with a commander in chief who’s a proven cheater, and House and Senate Republicans that have shown their loyalty is to Mar-a-Lago and not the rule of law.”
Booker is right, but it is not quite as easy as Trump makes a phone call and Republicans stay in power.
What must be understood is that Republicans don’t get to stay in power if Johnson refuses to seat Democrats.