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      Conservative Mike Johnson wins House vote to become next speaker – as it happened

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      House Republicans have voted for Mike Johnson to be the newest speaker.The vote came out to 220-209 with every House Republican voting for him.The vote marks a breakthrough in a three-week limbo after House Republicans voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the seat earlier this month.Following the vote, House Republicans erupted into cheers and applause as the Louisiana representative was elevated to one of the highest offices in the US government.After weeks of political infighting and unsuccessful speaker nominations, the Louisiana Republican representative Mike Johnson has become House speaker.The vote came out to 220-209 with every House Republican voting for him. The vote marks a breakthrough in a three-week limbo after House Republicans voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the seat earlier this month.
      Johnson has already faced questions over his history of supporting Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election
      Groups advocating for human rights, including LGBTQ+ and womens’ rights have said that Johnson’s speakership is a threat, condemning his far-right views and voting record.
      Democrats believe Johnson’s central role in refuting the 2020 election results and his conservative views on many social issues could help them win back the House next year.– Chris Stein, Joan E Greve, Maanvi Singh
      Now that the House has a speaker, it’s right onto business. Once the speaker is sworn in, the House will consider a resolution to stand with Israel.The broad resolution affirms Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. It also calls for sanctions and aid. It will be interesting to see how Johnson and other Republicans land on the issue.Last month, Johnson was among 93 Republicans who supported an amendment to cut off military assistance to Ukraine, proposed by hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz.The progressive advocacy organization Stand Up America has called Johnson’s speakership “a threat to our democracy”.Following Johnson’s win, Stand Up America’s founder and president Sean Eldridge said:
      “Today is a dark day for American democracy. Mike Johnson’s record of election denial and his attempts to overturn the will of the people make him totally unfit to be second in line to the presidency. Those who have spent years trying to undermine our democracy cannot be trusted to lead it.
      Entrusting the House of Representatives to a man the New York Times called ‘the most important architect of the electoral college objections’ is proof of House Republicans’ contempt for our freedom to vote. The American people deserve a speaker who will stand up for our democracy and our fundamental freedoms, but sadly, House Republicans have embraced Maga extremism instead.”
      The Democratic Women’s Caucus has also condemned Mike Johnson’s win, citing his history of supporting legislation that targeted women’s rights including the 2022 US supreme court overturning of Roe v Wade.
      House Republicans’ new speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson, is a MAGA extremist through and through. While Democrats have worked to lower costs for working women, Mike Johnson has opposed efforts to make child care more affordable, and wants to cut Medicare and Social Security and ban abortion nationwide,” the caucus said.
      “The Democratic Women’s Caucus unanimously voted no – because a vote for speaker Johnson was a vote against women,” it added.
      Johnson has previously voted against the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the Pump for Nursing Mothers Act, bipartisan legislations that offered to give expecting and new mothers increased workplace protections.He also voted against bipartisan legislation to protect victims of sexual assault and harassment, including the Speak Out Act and the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harrassment Act.The Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group, has condemned Mike Johnson’s new House speakership position.In a statement released on Wednesday, the president of HRC, Kelley Robinson, said:
      “The Maga House majority has selected the most anti-equality speaker in US history by elevating Mike Johnson – this is a choice that will be a stain on the record of everyone who voted for him.
      Johnson is someone who doesn’t hesitate to express his disdain for the LGTBQ+ community from the rooftops and then introduces legislation that seeks to erase us from society. Just like Jim Jordan, Mike Johnson is an election-denying, anti-LGBTQ+ extremist, and the lawmakers who appeared to stand on principle in opposing Jordan’s bid have revealed themselves to be just as out-of-touch as their new leader.”
      Joe Biden has congratulated Mike Johnson on becoming the House’s newest speaker and called for lawmakers across the aisle to move quickly to address national security needs.In a statement released on Wednesday, Biden said:
      “Jill and I congratulate Speaker Johnson on his election.As I said when this process began, whoever the Speaker is, I will seek to work with them in good faith on behalf of the American people …
      We need to move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown in 22 days.Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can.This is a time for all of us to act responsibly, and to put the good of the American people and the everyday priorities of American families above any partisanship.”
      In other news, Minnesota representative Dean Phillips is expected to launch a 2024 Democratic presidential primary challenge against Joe Biden.Phillips, 54, will reportedly launch his campaign on Friday, Fox News reported, citing people familiar with his campaign.From there, Phillips will travel to New Hampshire and file his name for the state’s primary ballot.Several Democrats have discouraged Phillips from running, in response to the expected announcement.“He ought to go home to Minnesota,” Democratic senator Peter Welch said to the Huffington Post.“It’s a distraction and he’s going to be hounding on the president not because of policies – the Democrats support the policies and accomplishments of Biden – so he’s going to try to unravel that. It’s not helpful,” Welch added.The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren told the Post that she also disapproves of Phillips’s run.“It just doesn’t make sense,” Warren said to the Post. “I’m all for President Biden getting re-elected. He has delivered for America’s middle class and he’s going to win.”Despite the ire, Phillips’s campaign seems all the ready to launch. A tour bus for Dean Phillips was spotted in Ohio, CBS News reported.The bus reading, “Dean Phillips For President”, was seen driving through Ohio on Tuesday, presumably headed towards New Hampshire. The bus also featured Phillips’s slogan: “Make America Affordable Again”.Johnson is now delivering remarks in his first speech to the House after being elected as the 56th House speaker on Wednesday.After walking up to the podium, Johnson and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, hugged as Jeffries handed Johnson the House speaker gavel.During his speech, Johnson vowed to decentralize power in the House and have members more involved in the process, the Hill reported.“We owe that to the people,” he said.Johnson has also said that the first bill he will bring to the floor on Wednesday is a resolution in support of Israel.From Punchbowl News’ Mica Soellner:More reactions are pouring in after Mike Johnson becomes the 56th House speaker, following weeks of House electoral chaos.The Congressional Integrity Project (CIP), a liberal activist group, said those who supported Johnson “voted For Election Denial and Radical Extremism”.“All of the House Republicans who supported Mike Johnson for Speaker voted for election denial, a national abortion ban, and gutting Social Security and Medicare,” CIP said in a statement.“Johnson will use the Speaker’s power to continue to undermine our democracy, restore Trump to power, and pursue a Maga Republican agenda that throws working families under the bus,” the group said.CIP was relaunched by Democrats in 2022 as a counterpoint to House Republicans, particularly following the January 6 insurrection and the belief in the Republican party that the 2020 election results were falsified.Mike Johnson has published a statement to social media following his win as the House’s newest speaker. In a statement posted to X, Johnson acknowledged the “arduous” House speaker election process that has dominated the Republican party for weeks.“It has been an arduous few weeks, and a reminder that the House is as complicated and diverse as the people we represent,” Johnson said.“The urgency of this moment demands bold, decisive action to restore trust, advance our legislative priorities, and demonstrate good governance,” he said.Johnson further said that, as House speaker, he will work to restore “trust” in the House and “sanity” within the government more broadly.“We will restore trust in this body. We will advance a comprehensive conservative policy agenda, combat the harmful policies of the Biden Administration, and support our allies abroad,” Johnson added.“And we will restore sanity to a government desperately in need of it. Let’s get back to work,” he said.The Republican National Committee has congratulated Mike Johnson as the House’s newest speaker.In a statement released following the House vote, RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said:
      “Congratulations to the new speaker of the House, Mike Johnson! In eight months, the Republican House majority passed bills to lower energy costs, secure the border, defend parents’ rights, improve public safety, and more. When Republicans come together, we deliver results, and that’s what we need to showcase ahead of 2024. We delivered this majority to bring solutions to the American people. It’s time for Republicans to unite behind speaker Johnson and get back to work.”
      House Republicans have voted for Mike Johnson to be the newest speaker.The vote came out to 220-209 with every House Republican voting for him.The vote marks a breakthrough in a three-week limbo after House Republicans voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the seat earlier this month.Following the vote, House Republicans erupted into cheers and applause as the Louisiana representative was elevated to one of the highest offices in the US government.Steve Scalise, once a top contender of the House speaker race only to then drop out, has voted for Mike Johnson.As with Kevin McCarthy and Patrick McHenry’s votes for Johnson, Republicans stood up and applauded the Louisiana Republican for his vote.Patrick McHenry, the House speaker pro tempore, has cast his vote for Mike Johnson as the next House speaker.Republicans stood and applauded the North Carolina Republican representative.Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy has voted for Mike Johnson as the next House speaker.In response, House Republicans stood up around him and clapped.The Democratic National Committee has criticized Mike Johnson’s House speaker nomination, calling the Louisiana representative the “new Maga speaker-designate”.In a statement released on Wednesday, a DNC spokesperson, Sarafina Chitika said:
      “Many Americans are waking up this morning wondering – who is Mike Johnson? We’re here to help: Maga Republicans’ new speaker-designate supports extreme nationwide abortion bans. He led the charge for Donald Trump denying president Biden’s legitimate election win and tried to overthrow the votes of 81 million Americans.
      He’s a leading proponent of slashing Social Security and Medicare. Mike Johnson is a carbon-copy of the Maga extremism that is deeply unpopular with Americans across the country. House Republicans will have to answer for their support for their new Maga speaker next November. Make no mistake: the American people will hold them accountable for this choice.” More

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      Election denier, climate skeptic, anti-abortion: seven beliefs of new US House speaker Mike Johnson

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      Mike Johnson’s emergence as the new speaker of the US House of Representatives has earned the relatively little-known Louisiana Republican a turn in the national spotlight.In turn, that spotlight has illuminated positions and remarks many deem extreme.He tried to overturn the 2020 electionIn the modern Republican party, supporting Donald Trump’s lie about voter fraud in his defeat by Joe Biden is hardly an outlandish position. But Johnson took it further.After the election, he voiced support for Trump’s conspiracy theory that voting machines were rigged. Later, he was one of 147 Republicans to object to results in key states, even after a pro-Trump mob attacked Congress on January 6, a riot now linked to nine deaths and hundreds of convictions.Johnson also authored an amicus brief filed to the supreme court in a case in which Texas sought to have swing-state results thrown out. According to the New York Times, a House Republican lawyer said Johnson’s brief was unconstitutional. Nonetheless, he persuaded 125 colleagues to sign it, using tactics some thought heavy handed.The supreme court refused to take the case. On Tuesday, Johnson refused to take a question about his work on Trump’s behalf – smiling as fellow Republicans booed and jeered the reporter.He was a spokesperson for a ‘hate group’Before entering politics, Johnson worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom – designated a hate group by the Southern Law Poverty Center, which tracks US extremists.According to the SPLC, the ADF has “supported the recriminalisation of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ+ adults in the US and criminalisation abroad; defended state-sanctioned sterilisation of trans people abroad; contended that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to engage in paedophilia; and claimed that a ‘homosexual agenda’ will destroy Christianity and society”.On Wednesday, the ADF senior counsel, Jeremy Tedesco, denied the organisation was a hate group and attacked the SPLC designation as partisan.“The truth is, Alliance Defending Freedom is among the largest and most effective legal advocacy organizations dedicated to protecting the religious freedom and free speech rights of all Americans,” he said.He opposes LGBTQ+ rightsIn state politics and at the national level, Johnson has worked to claw back gains made by LGBTQ+ Americans in their fight for equality.In 2016, as he ran for Congress, he told the Louisiana Baptist Message he had “been out on the front lines of the ‘culture war’ defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they’ve been under assault”. He has since led efforts for a national “don’t say gay” bill, regarding the teaching of LGBTQ+ issues in schools, and is also opposed to gender-affirming care for children.On Wednesday, Rev Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality, said: “Johnson has made a career out of attacking the LGBTQ+ community at every turn. His positions are out of touch with the clear majority support for LGBTQ+ equality in our country. His new leadership role is just further proof of the dangerous priorities of the GOP and the critical stakes for our democracy – and for LGBTQ+ Americans – in 2024.”He is stringently anti-abortionJohnson has maintained a relatively low profile in Congress but when last year the supreme court removed the right to abortion, Johnson celebrated “a historic and joyful day”.Though Dobbs v Jackson returned abortion rights to the states, Johnson has co-sponsored bills for a nationwide ban. And as he neared his position of power, footage spread of striking remarks in a House hearing. “Roe v Wade did constitutional cover to the elective killing of unborn children in America, period,” Johnson said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion
      You think about the implications on the economy. We’re all struggling here to cover the bases of social security and Medicare and Medicaid and all the rest. If we had all those able-bodied workers in the economy, we wouldn’t be going upside down and toppling over like this … I will not yield I will not. Roe was a terrible corruption of America’s constitutional jurisprudence.”
      He wants to cut social security and MedicareAs those comments indicate, Johnson wants to cut programs on which millions rely. Such cuts are widely regarded as a political third-rail – Trump has used the issue to attack Republican presidential rivals, saying only he will defend such benefits – but Johnson is far from alone in wanting to swing the axe.He is an advocate for ‘covenant marriage’When he married his wife, Kelly, in 1999, the couple agreed to a “covenant” marriage: a conservative Christian idea that makes it harder to divorce. The Johnsons promoted the idea on ABC’s Good Morning America.“My own parents are divorced,” Johnson said. “As anyone who goes through that knows, that was a traumatic thing for our whole family. I’m a big proponent of marriage and fidelity and all the things that go with it, and I’ve seen first-hand the devastation [divorce] can cause.”He is a climate skepticIn 2017, Johnson told voters in his oil-rich home state: “The climate is changing, but the question is, is it being caused by natural cycles over the span of the Earth’s history? Or is it changing because we drive SUVs? I don’t believe in the latter. I don’t think that’s the primary driver.”He has also opposed proposals for a Green New Deal and been named an “energy champion” by the American Energy Alliance, a rightwing group that has defended fossil fuel use.… and progressives are alarmedOn Wednesday, Democrats and progressives greeted Johnson’s ascent with criticism – and opposition research.Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog Accountable.US, called Johnson “a far-right extremist who led a desperate attempt to subvert democracy … [who] boasts a voting record deeming him one of the most extreme members of the Republican conference.“A Speaker Johnson means more of the same from the Maga [pro-Trump] majority: pointless partisan political stunts, peddling dangerous conspiracies and ultimately undermining American democracy.” More

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      Mike Johnson’s speaker win reveals the iron grip Trump still has on Republicans

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      After engineering this month’s unceremonious defenestration of the hapless Kevin McCarthy, some far-right Republicans openly dreamed of installing their hero Donald Trump to replace him as speaker of the House of Representatives.Trump himself, meanwhile, suggested that only Jesus Christ was certain to be elected to the role – apparently overlooking practical concerns of presumed unavailability.But in new speaker Mike Johnson, a previously little-known rightwinger from Louisiana, members of the Trump-loving Republican House Freedom Caucus have seen the speaker’s gavel go to a man who shows all the hallmarks of being their master’s voice – and reveals the iron grip Trump still has on the Republican party.For the former US president’s part, he now has in a key congressional leadership role a figure who, if the past is any guide, willingly dances to his tune.Time alone will tell if this continues to be the case. But having served in the House legal defence team against Trump’s first impeachment, Johnson, 51 – a vocal and extreme social conservative – then played a key role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden, his bona fides as a member of the Make America Great Movement’s seem unchallengeable.Matt Gaetz, the hardline Florida congressman who was the vanquished McCarthy’s arch-nemesis, had little doubts, tweeting on Wednesday: “If you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to Maga Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement and where the power in the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention.”But it is the endorsement of Trump himself that has paved the way for the previously unheralded Johnson’s ascendancy – and gives a clue to his future conduct.Trump opened the door to a Johnson speakership on Tuesday by viciously turning against the previous hopeful, Tom Emmer, a Republican whip and Minnesota congressman, who he tarred with the Republican in name only (Rino) appellation while warning darkly that voting him would be a “tragic mistake”.“I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors,” he wrote on his Truth Social network. “RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA–MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”Having seen his previous favored nominee, Jim Jordan, fail after three attempts at winning the endorsement of the house Republican conference, Trump realised that he may have finally found his man.With the fatally smeared Emmer safely out of the running, Trump finally put his thumb on the scale.“I am not going to make an Endorsement in this race, because I COULD NEVER GO AGAINST ANY OF THESE FINE AND VERY TALENTED MEN, all of whom have supported me, in both mind and spirit, from the very beginning of our GREAT 2016 Victory,” he posted on Wednesday.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBut he added: “My strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST!”With the deed done, the indicted former president was in celebratory mood, telling journalists outside a New York court on Wednesday where he is on trial over alleged business fraud that Johnson would be “a fantastic speaker”, adding that he had not heard “one negative comment about him. Everybody likes him.”Whether this applies to outside the narrow confines of modern Republican politics is another question entirely.Johnson is already on record as staunchly opposing further aid to Ukraine, a highly divisive faultline in the Republican party and a key priority of the Biden administration.And with Congress facing a 17 November deadline to pass funding legislation that would avoid a damaging government shutdown – all amid calls for spending cutbacks by his far-right Republican allies – the hitherto obscure congressman from Louisiana might be about to become much better known, and more disliked. More

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      Mike Johnson helped Trump on January 6 – now he’s a threat to democracy

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      The Louisiana congressman Mike Johnson, whom Republicans in Congress elected as their speaker after more than three weeks of leaderless chaos, played a key role in Donald Trump’s attempts to subvert the results of the 2020 election.Johnson amassed enough support to win the speakership because of his allegiance to Trumpian ideals, earning him the nickname on the far right of “Maga Mike”. A litmus test of sorts for the speakership was alignment with rightwing views, including believing in a stolen election, though the firebrand approach of failed speaker candidate Jim Jordan soured moderate members, despite his election-denying bonafides.Johnson’s victory brought swift alarm from groups defending US democracy, which pointed to the prominent role Johnson will take in US politics before a crucial 2024 presidential election, and how election denialism is clearly no longer a fringe view in the Republican party.Johnson was more involved than his predecessor Kevin McCarthy in efforts to overturn the 2020 election; McCarthy tolerated and often condoned election denialism and voted against certifying the 2020 vote, but didn’t go as far as the right-most flank.Johnson, a lesser-known lawmaker, is perhaps most notable for his role in attempting to overturn Democratic president Joe Biden’s victory. His arguments against the votes, noting how states changed voting rules because of the pandemic, became a “narrow and lawyerly” way for members of Congress to object to the vote count on January 6, with Johnson as “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections”, the New York Times reported.Johnson, who is a constitutional lawyer, also circulated an amicus brief – signed by more than 100 Republican lawmakers, including McCarthy – and filed it in a Texas court case to contest the results in four swing states.A few days after the 2020 election, Johnson wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I have just called President Trump to say this: ‘Stay strong and keep fighting, sir! The nation is depending upon your resolve. We must exhaust every available legal remedy to restore Americans’ trust in the fairness of our election system.’”Johnson’s ascension shows the state of the mainstream Republican party today – their firm denial of the 2020 election and allegiance to Trump, said Gunner Ramer, the political director for the Republican Accountability Project. A more moderate Republican speaker nominee, the congressman Tom Emmer, failed to win over Trump and the far right, who saw him as a Republican in Name Only, or Rino.Johnson’s win “speaks to the total disregard that the Republican party has had and still has for democratic institutions and the rule of law”, Ramer said. “Propping up someone like Mike Johnson should expose that fact within the Republican party.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionStand Up America, a progressive advocacy group, called it a “dark day for American democracy”.“Mike Johnson’s record of election denial and his attempts to overturn the will of the people make him totally unfit to be second in line to the presidency,” the group’s founder and president, Sean Eldridge, said. “Those who have spent years trying to undermine our democracy cannot be trusted to lead it.”Already, Johnson and his supporters have made clear they don’t want to answer questions about the 2020 election. In a press conference Tuesday, when a reporter noted Johnson’s role and attempted to ask a question, she was met with boos and derision from Johnson and his allies. More

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      Trump fined $10,000 for violating gag order and described as ‘not credible’ on witness stand – as it happened

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      Judge Arthur Engoron has fined Trump $10,000 after holding a brief hearing in which he called the ex-president to testify about his possible violation of a gag order this morning. Engoron previously ordered Trump not to make disparaging comments about his staff; in commentary this morning, Trump appeared to make one such statement about Engoron’s law clerk.Trump denied that he was speaking about Engoron’s clerk, and insisted he was speaking about Michael Cohen. Engoron disagreed.“As the trier of fact I find that the witness is not credible,” Engoron said in imposing the fine.Moments before it concluded, Cohen said: “Donald Trump spoke like a mob boss.”Cohen’s comment was in reference to prior statements about Trump’s directives which the ex-president’s defense team has described as inconsistent.Specifically, Trump’s team has honed in on Cohen’s testimony to Congress in which he appeared to say that his former boss didn’t tell him to inflate real estate valuations.Cohen was asked in February 2019: “Did Mr Trump direct you or Mr Weisselberg to inflate the numbers for his personal statement?”“Not that I recall, no,” Cohen said.On re-direct, Cohen explained: “He did not specifically state ‘Michael, go inflate the numbers.“As I’ve stated in my books and I’ve stated publicly, Donald Trump speaks like a mob boss,” Cohen said. Trump says what he wants without “specifically” saying.“We understood what he wanted, so when they asked me, ‘Did Mr Trump direct you or Mr Weisselberg to inflate numbers for his personal statement?’ and I stated, ‘No, not that I recall,’ that’s what I was referring to.”Court has wrapped for the day.There was a bit more bizarre courtroom drama just now. Trump abruptly left the courtroom after Cohen’s cross-examination wrapped.Faherty, a lawyer for the attorney general’s office, is now questioning Cohen on redirect. It’s unclear why Trump walked out of the courtroom.Cross-examination of Michael Cohen has resumed, but all eyes are still on the events that just transpired with Judge Arthur Engoron’s imposition of a $10,000 fine on Trump after apparently violating a gag order.Engoron imposed this punishment after calling Trump to the witness stand to explain to whom the ex-president was referring when he said: “This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.’”Engoron asked Trump lawyer Chris Kise: “Mr Kise you, I believe, said on behalf of defendant Trump … that he was referring to Michael Cohen when he said what he said.”“Is that correct?”“Yes,” Kise said.“I’m going to hold a hearing right now about that,” Engoron said.Engoron called Trump to testify.“Mr Trump, did you say in the hallway this morning, ‘This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.’”“Yes,” Trump said.“To whom were you referring when you said the person sitting alongside of me?”“You and Cohen,” Trump replied.“Are you sure that you didn’t mean the person on the other side of me – my principal law clerk?”“Yes, I’m sure.”Engoron asked whether he had previously referred to her as partisan.“I think she’s very biased against us,” Trump said.Trump also addressed his prior failure to remove past disparaging comments about the clerk in a timely way, which flouted a previous Engoron order.Trump said that his camp had put up a picture of her and removed it after Engoron took issue, but that “we have so many different sites”.“I believe that it was one of the political groups one of the Pacs that had it up or left it up,” Trump said.After Trump left the stand, Engoron said: “As the trier of fact, I find that the witness is not credible and that he had been referring to my law clerk.”Trump’s team unsuccessfully pushed back against the fine.Judge Arthur Engoron has fined Trump $10,000 after holding a brief hearing in which he called the ex-president to testify about his possible violation of a gag order this morning. Engoron previously ordered Trump not to make disparaging comments about his staff; in commentary this morning, Trump appeared to make one such statement about Engoron’s law clerk.Trump denied that he was speaking about Engoron’s clerk, and insisted he was speaking about Michael Cohen. Engoron disagreed.“As the trier of fact I find that the witness is not credible,” Engoron said in imposing the fine.Donald Trump has just sat down at the witness stand.The lunch break ended and court has resumed.Judge Engoron is now addressing Trump’s possible gag order violation.We’re still on the lunch break, but Trump has commented on the possible gag order violation that judge Engoron discussed earlier.Trump wouldn’t discuss what transpired after court broke for lunch; after media and public left the courtroom, it was sealed to reporters and observers.As shown in this video by Law 360’s Frank Runyeon, Trump denied violating the gag order.It’s possible we will know more about the potential gag order violation when court resumes after lunch.Habba just concluded her cross-examination of Cohen, leaning hard on her argument that he’s dishonest – and angry that his former confidant and boss didn’t help him.She prompted Cohen to say that he was being untruthful during prior congressional testimony in which he said “I don’t recall” when asked if Trump inflated asset valuations.“Did you ever ask President Trump to pardon you while he was in the White House?” Habba asked.“No,” Cohen said.“He didn’t pardon you, did he?”“No,” Cohen replied with force.Court proceedings are now on a break for lunch. They will resume at about 2.15pm, with additional cross-examination from another lawyer in Trump’s camp.Habba is now trying to portray Cohen as irrelevant and desperate to make money off of his ill-fated relationship with Trump. Did he make money off of his Trump tell-all? How much did he make?“And without stories or accusations about President Trump, you really don’t have anything to [sell]?” Habba asked.“I disagree,” Cohen responded.“Your primary income is speaking about Trump,” Habba pressed. “The more outrageous your stories are about president Trump, the more money you make, is that accurate, Mr Cohen?”“President Trump makes you relevant, doesn’t he?” she said later.“I think the circumstances make me relevant.” Before Cohen returned to the witness stand several minutes ago, Judge Engoron – who fined Trump $5,000 for violating a gag order that barred Trump from publicly commenting about his staff – said he was just alerted to comments that appeared to violate said order yet again.“It was just brought to my attention that the Associated Press reported…Mr Donald J Trump just stated the following to the press gaggle outside the courtroom: ‘This judge is a very partisan judge with a person who is very partisan sitting alongside him, perhaps even much more partisan than he is.’”“It’s really easy for the public or anyone to know who that person is,” Engoron said, referring to the law clerk whom Trump previously disparaged.“This recent statement – assuming the Associated Press is correct– obviously was intentional. I stated the last time that any future violations would be severely punished,” Engoron said. “Again, I should ask the question: Why should there not be severe sanctions for this blatant, dangerous disobeyl of a clear court order?”Trump lawyer Chris Kise insisted: “His whole commentary related to Mr Cohen and his credibility as a witness. We’re certainly aware of the order.”Engoron didn’t appear to buy the explanation, saying that the word “alongside” strongly suggested Trump was referring to his clerk. “I’ll take the whole matter under advisement,” Engoron said.Right before recess, Trump’s lawyer specifically pointed to Cohen’s use of the former president for personal gain and media content.Habba’s cross has also tried to paint Cohen as a spurned friend desperate to save his own skin.She asked Cohen whether he ever told Robert Costello, who was once a longterm Trump ally, “I don’t have anything on Donald Trump. I swear to god I don’t have anything on Donald Trump.“I don’t recall that.”“Do you recall that you told him that you would do – excuse my French – whatever the F it takes to avoid jail time?”“I don’t recall that, either.”Habba later intimated that Cohen was upset at Trump for not giving him a top White House position. She showed a series of spring 2017 texts between Cohen where someone listed as “Person 4” speculated about Trump’s chief-of-staff pick.“Keep guessing, dopey,” Cohen said.“Stop!!! You!” Person 4 replied, writing shortly thereafter: “OMG Please be true. Are you serious? You need to.”“He needs to ask, I would never,” Cohen responded.“You were never given a position in the White House, were you, Mr Cohen?”“I was given the position that I asked for. There’s no shame in being personal attorney to the president.”Court has now broken for the mid-morning break. Habba’s cross-examination of Cohen has spiraled from showmanship to campy theatrics as she has repeatedly nitpicked the former Trump fixer’s comments, down to his diction.During these exchanges–and squabbles with opposing counsel–Habba would raise the volume of her voice at key moments to make a point.While lawyers can be theatrical–and many of the best are–Cohen’s refusal to take guff contributed to the abject zaniness characterizing moments of this morning’s proceedings.“I’ve answered every question that you want, why are you screaming at me?” Cohen said.When Habba asked Cohen whether James initiated the investigation because of his comments on Trump, she pointed toward the state’s top prosecutor, who raised her hand from the first row of the gallery.“You’re welcome,” Cohen said to the courtroom. The courtroom erupted into laughter.“You’re welcome?” Habba said. “That’s telling.”“I was being comical,” Cohen said shortly thereafter.At another point, when Habba asked Cohen about the AG’s investigation, he said: “You can ask Ms. James.”“Objection,” James said from the gallery, prompting chuckles.Here are some of the latest images of key people returning to court for Trump’s civil fraud trial.Not surprisingly, Trump attorney Alina Habba is trying to cast Michael Cohen as a liar, as he’s the key witness in New York attorney general Letitia James’s civil fraud case against the ex-president.She’s also tried to catch Cohen in a trap admitting to perjury. (Lying under oath, which is perjury, constitutes a crime.)She specifically honed in on Cohen’s disavowal Tuesday of his guilt in several crimes he did, in fact, admit to five years ago.“There was no tax evasion. At best, it could be characterized as a tax omission. I have never in my life not paid taxes,” Cohen had insisted, noting that he’d spoken out against this charge many times. Cohen said there were crimes he did plead guilty to that he committed, but not everything.“I wanted to correct the record because when all of this started, it was overwhelming, the amount of misinformation, disinformation, mal-information about me was overwhelming and enormous,” Cohen said. He also disavowed arranging the payment to Karen McDougal, which he admitted to during his first plea proceeding.“I acknowledged my complicity in the Stormy Daniels matter, but…I never paid Karen McDougal,” Cohen said Tuesday. “I was tasked to review documents to ensure that Trump was protected.”Habba repeatedly asked Cohen whether he committed “perjury” during his guilty plea before the late Manhattan federal court judge William Pauley.After lawyers on both sides went head-to-head about whether Habba could use the word ‘“perjury,” Engoron instructed them to proceed without the term. She eventually got her point across, without the linguistic showmanship.“Yesterday was the first time you admitted, in open court, that you lied to Judge Pauley, correct?”“In open court?” Cohen said. “Yes.”Michael Cohen is back on the stand.Trump lawyer Alina Habba, after wishing him “good morning”, said she reminded Cohen that he was still under oath.“True,” Judge Arthur Engoron said plainly from the bench.She’s asking Cohen about the many felonies he pleaded guilty to in 2018.Within moments, the attorney general’s office took issue with these questions, as Habba on Tuesday repeatedly asked him about this.“We did this yesterday,” Colleen Faherty, a lawyer for the attorney general, said.Donald Trump has entered the courtroom. He looked forward as he walked and took his seat at the defense table without fanfare.Court was called to order several moments before his arrival; lawyers have been discussing housekeeping matters with the judge.Good morning from downtown Manhattan, where Michael Cohen is expected to soon return to the witness stand in Donald Trump’s New York state civil fraud trial.Cohen’s testimony at the 60 Centre Street courthouse stems from New York attorney general Letitia James’s lawsuit against the ex-president. Her civil claim maintains that Trump unlawfully inflated values of his properties on financial statements when it suited him.Cohen, the onetime Trump fixer who in 2018 pleaded guilty to a plethora of federal crimes related to his ex-boss, repeatedly implicated him in financial wrongdoing on Tuesday. When proceedings resume this morning, Trump attorney Alina Habba will continue her cross-examination.Here are the key points of Cohen’s testimony against Trump on Tuesday.Trump wanted to “reverse-engineer” his net worth.Cohen testified that Trump wanted him and Weisselberg to figure out a way for him to have the net worth he wanted. Per Cohen: “I was tasked, by Mr Trump, to increase the total assets based upon a number that he arbitrary selected, and my responsibility, along with Allen Weisselberg predominately, was to reverse-engineer the various different asset classes, increase those assets, in order to achieve the number that Mr Trump had [requested].”Cohen and Weisselberg altered financial statements “by hand” to give Trump his desired net worth.During meetings when Cohen and Weisselberg discussed Trump’s financials, he would make demands about what they should be. Trump, Cohen said, “would look at the total assets and he would say, ‘I’m actually not worth $4.5bn, I’m really worth more like six.’“He would then direct Allen and I to go back to Allen’s office and return after we achieved the desir[ed] goal.” Cohen said he and Weisselberg would go line-by-line on the financial statement and “mark it up by hand … in able to get the total asset number that Mr Trump asked us to achieve”.Trump allegedly had final control over business operationsThe New York attorney general’s office is working hard to prove that Trump and his inner circle conspired in defrauding lenders and insurers with inflated property valuations. Cohen’s testimony puts Trump at the center of making decisions that enabled this alleged wrongdoing. Trump, he said, made decisions about his desired net worth, how he’d present himself to insurers–and which of his underlings would carry out his wishes. “All the final decisions were done by Mr Trump,” Cohen said.Proceedings will kick off around 9.30am ET. We will be providing live coverage as they progress. More

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      Mike Johnson becomes fourth Republican to be nominated for US House speaker this month

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      Mike Johnson was nominated to lead the US House of Representatives on Tuesday, though it was unclear whether he would merely become the latest hopeful to fall victim to party infighting that has paralyzed Congress for more than three weeks.Johnson, of Louisiana, is the fourth Republican this month to win the party’s nomination for the speaker’s chair, which has sat vacant since a small faction of party rebels ousted Kevin McCarthy on 3 October.Republicans’ disarray has left lawmakers unable to respond to the wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, or take steps to head off a partial government shutdown that would begin on 18 November without congressional action.It was not clear whether Johnson would be able to overcome divisions that have tripped up three other candidates who had previously won the party’s nomination. In a sign of those divisions, the second-place finisher in the nominating vote was the ousted McCarthy, who secured 43 votes despite not being a declared candidate.Tom Emmer, the No. 3 House Republican, won the nomination earlier in the day, only to withdraw hours later due to opposition from the party’s right flank.Like Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan before him, Emmer’s prospects were doomed by a relatively small group of holdouts who denied him the 217 votes he needed. That high threshold and the party’s narrow 221-212 majority means that any candidate can afford to lose just four votes if Democrats remain united in opposition.“We have no capacity at the moment to come to a verdict, and that is a very distressing place to be,” congressman Marc Molinaro said.Johnson, a conservative constitutional law attorney, has billed himself as a bridge builder between the various Republican factions. The north-west Louisiana district he represents is one of the poorest in the US.“He knows everybody very well, does a great job with bringing people to the floor, talking about our policies, and that’s what we need right now,” said Kevin Hern, who withdrew his own bid to support Johnson.Johnson bested Byron Donalds, Mark Green, Roger Williams and Chuck Fleischmann in the latest Republican speaker nomination fight. In total, 14 Republicans have put their names forward for speaker this month.Emmer dropped his bid after Donald Trump urged Republicans to oppose him. Unlike many in his party, Emmer voted to certify Joe Biden’s 2020 victory over Trump after the 6 January 2021 attack on the Capitol by Trump supporters.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionTrump earlier this month had backed Jordan’s bid for the speakership, but Republicans gave up on his attempt last week after Jordan lost three floor votes.Before that, No. 2 House Republican Steve Scalise dropped his own bid when he was unable to line up enough votes to win the job.Democrats have said they are open to a compromise candidate who would allow the chamber to function. Many Republicans have said on principle that they would not back somebody who had support from the opposition party.“We must pursue a bipartisan path forward and reopen the House,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries said on social media.The uncertainty has also helped to push up the US government’s borrowing costs. The government posted a record $1.7tn deficit for the most recent fiscal year, in part due to higher interest payments. More

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      Tom Emmer withdraws US House speaker bid hours after nomination

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      The Minnesota representative Tom Emmer has abandoned his bid for speaker after it became clear he had no pathway to winning the 217 votes required to become speaker. He abandoned his bid hours after getting enough votes to be the GOP nominee.Emmer is the third Republican who has withdrawn from the speakership race after initially getting the nod from a majority of the conference. Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio previously launched unsuccessful efforts.Emmer’s failure to get the speakership is the latest development in a remarkably embarrassing three weeks for House Republicans that came after they ousted Kevin McCarthy as speaker.Emmer won the nomination to be speaker shortly after noon ET on Tuesday, defeating Louisiana congressman Mike Johnson by 117-97 in a secret ballot vote. After becoming the nominee, Republicans took a non-secret roll call vote in which 26 members said they would vote against Emmer in a floor vote, according to Punchbowl News, making his pathway to getting 217 votes virtually impossible. Republicans hold a 221-212 majority in the House, meaning that whoever is eventually elected speaker needs to get the support of almost the entire conference, assuming all Democrats vote for their leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York.Johnson and Kevin Hern, the chairman of the Republican study committee and one of the eight candidates Emmer defeated on Tuesday, immediately announced they were running for speaker.Donald Trump also publicly came out against Emmer’s candidacy Tuesday afternoon.“I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors,” Trump said in a statement posted on Truth Social, his social media network. “RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA-MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! He fought me all the way.”Emmer abruptly left a meeting of House Republicans Tuesday afternoon, shortly before it was announced he was ending his bid, Punchbowl reported.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionUnlike many of his colleagues, Emmer voted to certify the 2020 election in Congress. When he led House Republicans’ campaign arm, he also reportedly advised candidates to not talk about Trump on the campaign trail – something Emmer strongly denies. More

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      Tom Emmer drops out of House speaker race amid significant Republican opposition and Trump attacks- US politics live

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      It looks like Tom Emmer is out of the speakership scramble…Emmer has dropped out of the race, per multiple reports, including the Washington Post, CNN and NBC. The Minnesota congressman is the third Republican speaker nominee since Kevin McCarthy was ousted.Emmer goes the way of representatives Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, neither of whom was able to unite their party’s far-right and moderate factions to back them. Emmer’s bid lasted just a few hours – he was nominated by the House GOP at lunchtime.House Republicans’ long search for a leader is far from over. Tom Emmer, the latest member vying for the speakership, announced he was dropping out of the race just four hours after his peers designated him as a nominee.Like Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan before him, Emmer couldn’t unite House GOP members to back him. His detractors on the far-right cited his stance on same-sex marriage and government spending bills, and his willingness to certify the 2020 election in Congress.In other news:
      Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer to Donald Trump who was indicted in the Georgia election subversion case, accepted a plea deal from prosecutors.
      Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, testified that the former president was told repeatedly that his allegations of voting fraud were baseless, according to report from ABC. This is the latest, and perhaps most damning evidence yet in the federal government’s case against Trump .
      Donald Trump’s former White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, spoke with the special counsel investigating the former president several times, testifying that Trump was told repeatedly that his allegations of voting fraud were baseless, according to ABC.Per ABC, which sites unnamed sources familiar with the matter:
      The sources said Meadows informed [special counsel Jack] Smith’s team that he repeatedly told Trump in the weeks after the 2020 presidential election that the allegations of significant voting fraud coming to them were baseless, a striking break from Trump’s prolific rhetoric regarding the election.
      Meadows also told the federal investigators Trump was being “dishonest” with the public when he first claimed to have won the election only hours after polls closed on Nov. 3, 2020, before final results were in.
      Such testimony would be among the most damning evidence yet in special counsel’s case alleging that Trump tried to unlawfully retain power after losing the 2020 election to Joe Biden.On Fox Business, far-right representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said she couldn’t support Tom Emmer because he hadn’t supported a ban on trans people serving in the military, and because he supported the “voting rights … national voting movement that was completely against what we stand for”.It looks like Tom Emmer is out of the speakership scramble…Emmer has dropped out of the race, per multiple reports, including the Washington Post, CNN and NBC. The Minnesota congressman is the third Republican speaker nominee since Kevin McCarthy was ousted.Emmer goes the way of representatives Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, neither of whom was able to unite their party’s far-right and moderate factions to back them. Emmer’s bid lasted just a few hours – he was nominated by the House GOP at lunchtime.Punchbowl News reports that Republicans are returning to a Capitol complex meeting room for behind-closed-door discussions that could decide whether they move forward with Tom Emmer’s candidacy as speaker:The Minnesota congressman, who, as the party’s whip is the third-highest-ranking Republican in the House, won the GOP nomination for speaker this afternoon, but now faces opposition from perhaps 26 of his counterparts – which means defeat in a floor vote.We’ll be looking out for details on what Republicans decide at this meeting.Earlier in the day, House Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar weighed in on congressman Dean Phillips’s attempt to make a deal with Republicans.The Minnesota Democrat had suggested he would be willing to vote “present” and lower the threshold for Republican Tom Emmer to win election as speaker on the House floor in exchange for policy concessions around aid to Ukraine and Israel, among other things.That would represent a break from Democrats’ tactics ever since Kevin McCarthy was ousted, which have generally involved sitting back and doing nothing while the GOP fights among themselves. But with perhaps 26 Republicans willing to oppose his candidacy as speaker, it would not be enough to save Emmer, and Aguilar made clear the rest of the party is not on board.Here are his comments:The ranks of Tom Emmer’s detractors appear to be growing.Rightwing Florida congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna is not among those reported to have voted against Emmer behind closed doors, but now says she would oppose him on the House floor:That could mean his opponents number 27, which would guarantee his defeat.Wondering who exactly is this Tom Emmer fellow, emerged from the (figurative) wilds of Minnesota to be the latest Republican congressman (all men, so far) to attempt to grasp and keep hold of the gavel of the speaker of the US House? Let the Guardian’s Sam Levine enlighten you:The Minnesota congressman Tom Emmer will now be the third party leader to try to galvanize enough support among Republicans after Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio failed in their bids to be House speaker.It remains unclear if Emmer will be able to get the 217 votes he needs to be speaker, but – for the moment at least – he is in the center of the ongoing crisis gripping the party and causing chaos in the heart of US government.Emmer was elected to Congress in 2014, replacing Michele Bachmann, a far-right figutr who was one of the earliest Tea Party stars. When he initially ran to replace her, he was described as “Bachmann 2.0”, by the left-leaning Mother Jones magazine, but after he was elected he said he would be more low key.Emmer represents Minnesota’s sixth congressional district, which includes a partial ring of Minneapolis suburbs and extends north-west from the city. The district is solidly conservative: Donald Trump carried it in 2020 by more than 17 points.Emmer broke with many of his Republican colleagues and voted to certify the 2020 election.“Simply put, Congress does not have the authority to discard an individual slate of electors certified by a state’s legislature in accordance with their constitution,” he said.He did, however, sign on to a brief at the supreme court urging the justices to throw out the electoral votes from key swing states and suggested there may have been fraud as he supported Trump’s legal challenges to the election results, CNN reported.Read on here:Courtesy of Politico, here is a full list of all of Tom Emmer’s opponents among the House GOP, and who they voted for.As you can see, many cast ballots for Jim Jordan, a prominent rightwing lawmaker and 2020 election denier who last week abandoned his bid for speaker after concluding he could not win a floor vote:CNN, meanwhile, heard from Indiana’s Jim Banks, who had no problems pillorying Emmer:Tom Emmer’s issues with Donald Trump and his allies are well known, and it appeared the Minnesota congressman had moved to address them.While campaigning in New Hampshire yesterday, the former president batted away a question about whether he was opposed to Emmer becoming speaker – video of which was posted by the congressman, as a sign he had Trump’s support:It was apparently all for naught, since Trump has now put out a strongly worded statement against Emmer.Politico had a good rundown over the weekend of why Trump is opposed to Emmer, who is notable for not supporting attempts to certify election results in swing states that voted for Joe Biden in 2020, as some of the other speaker candidates had. Here’s more from Politico:
      The former president’s top allies are already working to thwart Emmer’s candidacy. Trump supporters have begun passing around opposition research on the congressmember, and the pro-Trump “War Room” podcast on Friday afternoon turned into an Emmer bash-fest. During an appearance on the program, top Trump adviser Boris Epshteyn noted that Emmer had yet to endorse Trump in the Republican presidential primary.
      “If somebody is so out of step with where the Republican electorate is, where the MAGA movement is, how can they even be in the conversation?” Epshteyn said. “We need a MAGA speaker. That’s what it comes down to. Because if you look at the numbers, if you look at the energy, if you look at the heat, this is the Trump party, this is the MAGA party. It is no longer the old-school khaki establishment Republican Party.”
      Steve Bannon, a former Trump White House adviser and the “War Room” host, chimed in to call Emmer a “Trump hater.”
      Others close to Trump said Emmer as speaker would open a breach between House Republicans and their likely presidential nominee. Emmer “has no relationship with Trump,” one adviser said.
      And … Donald Trump hath spoken. And … he isn’t a fan of Tom Emmer, the current choice of the Republican party to be speaker of the US House.
      I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors. RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA – MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! He fought me all the way, and actually spent more time defending Ilhan Omar, than he did me—He is totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters. I believe he has now learned his lesson, because he is saying that he is Pro-Trump all the way, but who can ever be sure? Has he only changed because that’s what it takes to win? The Republican Party cannot take that chance, because that’s not where the America First Voters are. Voting for a Globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake!
      That word salad brought to you by Truth Social, of course. Whether Emmer has “fought Trump all the way” or not is, to put it mildly, doubtful. He didn’t vote to overturn the 2020 election but he did sign on to a lawsuit seeking to throw out results, and so forth.Ilhan Omar, meanwhile, is a Democratic representative from Minnesota – Emmer’s state – a migrant from Somalia, both one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress and a leading progressive, part of a so-called “Squad” of left-leaning Democratic women.In July 2019, a crowd at a Trump rally in North Carolina targeted Omar with chants of “send her back”. Amid condemnation (Omar said: “I believe [Trump] is fascist”), Emmer said: “I didn’t watch the rally last night, sorry, but there’s no place for that kind of talk. I don’t agree with it.”Trump – who at the time said himself he was “not happy” with the crowd and claimed to have tried to stop the chants – may now wish to consider that in the same session with reporters, Emmer both said he didn’t think Trump had a “racist bone” in his body, and tried to explain Trump’s attacks on Omar.“What he was trying to say he said wrong,” Emmer said. “What he was trying to say is that if you don’t appreciate this country you don’t have to be here. It has nothing to do with your race or gender, or your family history. It has to do with respecting and loving the country that is giving you the opportunities that you have.“I had somebody say to me recently: ‘You know when Ilhan talks, Ilhan makes it look like she lets people believe she hates America.’ Now I don’t know if that’s true, but as somebody said to me back at home, they said to me: ‘How about a little gratitude with that attitude?’”Sidney Blumenthal’s Guardian column today – on the short-lived candidacy for speaker of Jim Jordan, the end of which precipitated today’s votes and the rise of Tom Emmer – is worth your time, starting from the opening lines about the necessity of counting votes and proceeding through Jordan’s unique political career:Jim Jordan’s march to seize the Capitol began as a beer hall putsch but veered into Sesame Street. Vote after vote, he has missed the sagacity of the Count, the puppet Dracula who teaches children the number of the day. Former speaker Nancy Pelosi wryly remarked that the Republicans should “take a lesson in mathematics and learning how to count”.After the second round, Jordan threw in the towel from his stool in the corner: no más! He endorsed instead extending the tenure and power of Patrick McHenry, the speaker pro tempore, until someone could figure something else out. But Jim Jordan the consensus builder was a short-lived phenomenon. The spirit of violence swirled around him.Read on:Steve Scalise, the majority leader, emerges to talk about the talks (and discuss the discussions) going on behind closed doors. Speaking to reporters at the Capitol, Scalise, of Louisiana and a previous candidate for speaker, says of the 20 or more holdouts against Emmer: “There’s some conversations, some are moving.”From the top: “First of all, I want to congratulate Tom Emmer on being selected our speaker designate with strong support. We are working right now through some questions still and we just continue our conversations.“Obviously we want to work to make sure when we get to the floor we have 217 [votes, to make Emmer speaker] and that’s something that Tom has said he wants to do before we go to the floor. So we’re gonna have some more conversations, but this is an ongoing process. We like to wrap this up today, but we’re still talking to some individual members.”Asked about the likelihood of Emmer (from Minnesota) making it to the floor today, Scalise says: “There’s some conversations, some are moving. You got to continue having these conversations. That’s what we’re doing right now.”Emmer, Scalise says, is “hearing everybody in those conversations going on as we speak. So that’s the first thing that Tom’s doing, is hearing people out, and that’s what, frankly, this whole process has been about. And so he’s got to hear people out. Ultimately, work to to move them over. And we’ve got to keep working until we get to 217. And I’m gonna do what I can to help Tom.”Matt Gaetz of Florida, who started this whole mess by prompting the ejection of Kevin McCarthy, then appears and stalks off, followed by the media scrum.Some reading to pass the time while we wait for Tom Emmer to speak – or not – concerning the last person to actually be speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and his relationships with Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the two anti-Trump Republicans who sat on the House January 6 committee and subsequently left Congress, Cheney defeated in Wyoming and Kinzinger retired in Illinois.Kinzinger will next week publish a book: Renegade: Defending Democracy and Liberty in Our Divided Country.Inside, he says McCarthy dismissed Cheney’s warning about January 6 on a party conference call five days before.Kinzinger also details two occasions on which, he says, McCarthy shoulder-checked him, physically, in the House chamber.Those moments, Kinzinger says, made him think: “What a child.’”In a passage written before McCarthy’s historic ejection by Matt Gaetz of Florida, the catalyst for the current mess, Kinzinger adds: “I just chalked it up to the immature behaviour that [McCarthy] favoured and that had become more and more common inside the chamber.”Full story:House Republicans have nominated Tom Emmer to become the next speaker of Congress’s lower chamber, but their long search for leadership is far from over. As many as 26 members of the party signaled they will not vote for him on the floor, more than enough to sink his candidacy. This is the exact same position Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan found themselves in, and highlights just how disunited the GOP has become and what an absolute mess that ouster of Kevin McCarthy created. Emmer has reportedly vowed to continue polling Republicans behind closed doors until he gets the support he needs to win. We’ll see what becomes of that.Here’s a rundown of today’s news so far:
      Jenna Ellis, a former lawyer to Donald Trump who was indicted in the Georgia election subversion case, accepted a plea deal from prosecutors.
      Emmer’s detractors cite his stance on same-sex marriage and on government spending bills.
      Dean Phillips, a Democratic congressman who is mulling challenging Joe Biden in the primary, said he would be willing to vote “present” when Emmer’s nomination is considered in exchange for policy concessions.
      Tom Emmer is pressing on in the face of the significant GOP opposition to his candidacy for speaker.CNN reports that he wants to continue holding roll call votes behind closed doors until he has the numbers he needs to win. But if he is not successful, congressman David Joyce says he will offer a resolution to give acting speaker Patrick McHenry the full powers of the job. Joyce made the same proposal last week, when Jim Jordan’s candidacy was flailing:Up to 26 Republicans may oppose Tom Emmer becoming speaker of the House, enough to stop him from getting the gavel, Punchbowl News reports:Assuming all Democrats vote against him, Emmer can only afford to lose four of the 221 Republicans in the House – a goal he appears to be well short of.The nominees who came before him, Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan, faced the same problem, and ultimately had to drop out. House Republicans have not yet announced when they will convene the chamber to hold a floor vote on making Emmer speaker. More