The drama and some ludicrous showmanship on Capitol Hill has
reached a whole new level.
Exhibit one Speaker Mike Johnson versus Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The fight is over foreign aid funding,
and he's willing to put his job on the line
to get it.
I regard myself as a Reagan Republican.
I understand the concept of maintaining peace through strength.
That's one of our guiding principles.
It's a really important philosophy and it's it's a big
part of our party and in our world view.
And I I think here is an opportunity to make
that stand at a really critical time in world history.
Exhibit 2. Marjorie Taylor Green,
who wants Johnson out as a result of what he
just said,
in spite of the fact that only one other House
member right now supports his ouster?
And three, this volatile exchange between James Comer,
whose investigation into alleged wrongdoing by Joe Biden has produced
nothing,
and Jamie Raskin.
What is the crime that you want to impeach Joe
Biden for and keep this nonsense going?
Why? What? What? What is the crime?
Tell America right now, but you're you're about to find
out.
What is the crime? You're about to find out
NBC's Julie Serkin is on Capitol Hill.
Brendan Buck is a former aide to Speakers Paul Ryan
and John Boehner and an MSNBC political analyst.
So, Julie, I understand the drama and infighting has boiled
over on the House Floor 1 lawmaker threatening Speaker Johnson
directly.
But serious stuff needs to get done,
so give us the lay of the land right now.
So this is what happened,
Chris. I actually just got off the phone with Congressman
Derek Van Orden,
who members of the House Freedom Caucus,
when they came off the floor after huddling with Speaker
Johnson in that tense group that you described,
said that he threatened Johnson,
calling him Tubby. Well, actually,
Van Orden told me literally moments ago that he was
referring his comments to Matt Gates.
He was telling the hardliners to bring it on facetiously,
meaning the motion to vacate because he is tired,
he said of the quote.
Cancer that has been spreading among the Republican Party in
the House here.
All of this of course happening in the context of
the foreign aid funding fight right?
Johnson right now is trying to pass separate bills to
fund Ukraine to fund Israel.
The Indo Pacific as well.
Those groups, the group of hardliners this morning we're trying
to pressure Johnson,
I'm told, to only put aid to Israel on the
floor.
Unless the Senate takes up their conservative border bill known
as HR 2,
which they all have known for months,
that Democratic run Senate will simply not do.
Johnson said he's not going to hold a Ukraine aid
hostage over that because he realizes this is a national
security priority.
Ukraine will lose the war,
Johnson told reporters yesterday, if they don't receive this legal
assistance from the US So Johnson now of course,
faces a fight to lose his speakership gavel on one
hand and another to do what's right.
He told lawmakers on the floor,
as well as reporters yesterday that he doesn't care about
losing his speakership.
He wants to do what's right when it comes to
Ukraine aid.
They're going to move forward with these bills.
By all accounts. Of course,
they are still held up in the Rules Committee.
But All in all here,
just a lot of Republican infighting that really has started
with Kevin McCarthy and his ouster in the fall and
justice perpetuating here on the House floor,
really preventing the House from being able to do anything
that they're supposed to do,
Chris. I mean, Brenton, when Speaker Johnson says Ukraine aid
is critically important for US National Security,
big picture, there really isn't a lot of daylight,
is there, between him and Joe Biden on that or
for that matter,
much of the Republican Party.
So what's going on?
Yeah, he's, he's gone all in on this.
And I think it's actually really remarkable.
I mean, it was only months ago that he was
openly questioning whether the United States needed to support Ukraine
at all.
And I think what the change has been is the
world looks very different when you're sitting in the speaker's
office.
The stakes are much higher.
But also you realize that the weight of what potentially
could happen is on your shoulders In some ways.
The other day he referred to himself as a wartime
speaker.
I think that betrayed maybe a dash of self self
importance,
but I think it speaks to the clarity with which
he's looking at this situation now.
This is no longer petty political politics that most of
the members there play all day.
He realizes that he has a job to do,
and I think he's getting some really good counsel that
if you just do the things that you know are
the right thing to do,
the politics are probably going to workout for you in
the end.
And I think he's going to be able to move
this through.
He's going to be able to survive it.
Is that what our lesson is of the last year,
that it'll workout?
I think it can. I think it will.
I think it will show that if you do the
things that you think are right,
you're going to survive. And I think he's going to
survive this.
I think Democrats are going to be there in large
numbers or whatever necessary numbers are.
Let's remember it is still very unpopular to remove the
the speaker.
While Matt Gaetz got away with it last time and
Marjorie Taylor Green is talking about it this time,
that incident on the floor demonstrates
the vast, vast majority of this conference don't want to
play games like that.
They want, they want a speaker who leads them and
that's the,
that's the ultimate irony. They want to be told what
to do.
They want to be have a game plan and a
call and see that you have some passion behind what
you're doing.
And I think he's starting to show that.
I think he's probably gaining a lot of respect.
And the lashing out you're seeing for people like Matt
Gaetz is because they realize
their authority or or their ability,
their leverage on the speaker is being taken away.
If if it if things
play out the way that I think they will.
Brendan Buck and Julie Sirkin,
thank you.