PALM BEACH, Florida – Despite Donald Trump’s landslide victory over Kamala Harris in November, it’s possible he may not become president on Jan. 20 if there’ still no speaker of the House who has certified the election results.
That alarm is being sounded on national TV as Mike Johnson, the current speaker of the House, is facing the threat of not being voted as speaker again this Friday.
On “Sunday Morning Futures” on the Fox News Channel, host Jason Chaffetz quoted Fox News senior congressional correspondent Chad Pergram who said:
“The House absolutely, unequivocally cannot do anything until it elects a speaker, period. This also means that the House cannot certify the results of the Electoral College, making trump the 47th president of the United States on Jan. 6. What happens if the Electoral College isn’t sorted out by Jan. 20? Well, President Biden is done, so he’s gone. The same with Harris. Next in the presidential line of succession is the speaker of the House.
“Well, there’s no speaker, so who becomes the president? If the House is still frittering away time trying to elect a speaker on Jan 20, [president pro tempore of the Senate Chuck] Grassley, likely becomes ‘acting president.’ I write likely because this gets into some serious, extra-constitutional turf. These are unprecedented scenarios. Strange lands never visited in the American political experience.”
U.S. Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the House Oversight Committee chairman, addressed the concern, saying: “No one ran against Mike Johnson. To this day, and here we are inside a week of the speaker’s vote, there is still not a single declared candidate.
“But as you know, we have five Republicans that won’t commit to voting for Mike Johnson, and he can only lose one or two votes. So I sure hope we don’t repeat this, and I’m strongly encouraging my colleagues and go ahead and elect Mike Johnson, and let’s get started on passing President Trump’s agenda.”
Will Chuck Grassley really become U.S. president if there’s no House speaker to certify Trump victory?
Rep. James Comer urges #Trump to get everyone united behind #MikeJohnson as speaker pic.twitter.com/2qLXwycnlw
— WorldNetDaily (@worldnetdaily) December 29, 2024
Chaffetz brought up Rep. Andy Harris, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, who is not necessarily fully committed to Johnson as speaker, and asked if the Republicans can stay united.
“It’s a terrible challenge. We’ve seen it play out over the past two years,” Comer noted. “It was very difficult for Kevin Mccarthy, it’s been very difficult for Mike Johnson. It would be very difficult for whomever would be elected speaker of our conference.
“But at the end of the day, the difference between the 119th Congress and the 118th Congress is we’ll have a Republican president, a strong Republican president who’s very popular with Republican congressmen’s constituents back home, and that’s Donald Trump.
“I strongly encourage Donald Trump to to get on the phone with those five or six members who won’t commit to voting for Mike Johnson, because all this is going to do is delay us.
“It’s going to delay the certification of President Trump’s election, it’s going to delay the start of his first hundred days in office which is the most important time frame of his whole presidency. That’s when you get the most done, historically. So I strongly encourage President Trump to get on the phone and try to get everyone united so we can work together as a team and make America great Again.”
Later in the broadcast, U.S. Rep. Brian Mast, the incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, said: “In the end I think Mike Johnson will be a great speaker, he’s going to be known as the DOGE speaker.”
“I think he’s gonna do a damn good job.”
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