Five lessons from a new speaker's first day on the job.
House Speaker Mike Johnson reenters the U.S. Capitol after addressing the media on the House steps on Oct. 25, 2023. | Francis Chung/POLITICOSpeaker Mike Johnson, who suddenly went from No. 7 in the House Republican leadership to No. 2 in the presidential line of succession, is learning in real time what it means to be the speaker of the House.
The new speaker has major challenges ahead, including a government shutdown deadline that’s now just three weeks away, but here’s what we’ve been able to learn from his first full day on the job:a measure to censure Rep. Rashida Tlaib for her support for a recent pro-Palestinian protest on the Capitol campus.
He might have more trouble, however, navigating the White House’s $106 billion supplemental funding request for Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan and the border. While many Republicans want to keep those issues combined, conservatives are quickly hardening their stance around keeping Ukraine out of the package.Johnson is still low on the learning curve for the more public-facing aspects of the speakership.
Later, Johnson was waylaid in the Will Rogers hallway by reporters seeking reaction to the mass shooting in Maine on Wednesday night. He stopped, but had to be coaxed in front of cameras andaround a portfolio and the other in his pocket as he delivered brief remarks focused on the need for prayer.In the not-quite two days since he was elected speaker nominee, Johnson has spoken in broad platitudes and brushed off pointed questions in his brief appearances before reporters.
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