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'You 2 guys are screwing it all up': Trump's phone call to House GOP holdouts against Mike Johnson's speakership changed their minds

"The American people want relief and the Trump agenda."

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"The American people want relief and the Trump agenda."

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President-elect Donald Trump reportedly changed the minds of two of the three GOP votes that went for others aside from Rep. Mike Johnson for the House Speaker election on Friday. This comes after Trump endorsed Johnson ahead of the vote. Several members also abstained from voting until later supporting Johnson in the first round.

According to a report from Real Clear Politics, when Johnson was opposed by Reps. Keith Self (R-TX) and Ralph Norman (R-SC), for around an hour, voting for Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Jim Jordan (R-OH) respectively, Nancy Mace (R-SC) rang up Trump in the last moments before a second round of voting would take place.

Others, such as Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), Andy Harris (R-VA), and Chip Roy (R-TX) initially abstained from voting, but in the end, turned their support toward Johnson. 

Mace as well as Johson joined the two GOP lawmakers in an office just outside the House chamber. Trump was waiting on speaker to talk to both of the holdouts. Prior to the vote on Friday, Trump said on Truth Social, "Good luck today for Speaker Mike Johnson, a fine man of great ability, who is very close to having 100% support. A win for Mike today will be a big win for the Republican Party, and yet another acknowledgment of our 129 year most consequential Presidential Election!! - A BIG AFFIRMATION, INDEED. MAGA!"

After going into the office, RCP reported that Trump told the two lawmakers, “He had the most historic election, and you guys are stepping all over it by being ridiculous.”

“I won all these swing states, but while Democrats are over there sticking together, you two guys are screwing it all up. The American people want relief and the Trump agenda,” Trump added in the call, per the outlet.

Trump warned that a rebellion against Johnson was also a rebellion against Trump's agenda. After the discussion, Norman and Self went back to the floor to change their votes, breaking the needed threshold of 218 votes to push Johnson through as House Speaker. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) had 215 votes from the Democrats.

When Self was asked about the call by reporters, he said that they had a "very good discussion about how to advance the Trump agenda."



He later added, "The Republicans have to do better in the House. The last two years have been a disaster. We passed bills with Democrat votes, lots of Democrat votes just since Trump won the election. Congress has passed $300 plus billion in new borrowed money spending. We needed to get the attention of the American people that we are going to be behind the Trump agenda going through Congress. We have got to do a better job. That's what it was about. Now, President Trump and I..we had a very good discussion."

"[Trump] understands the concerns of the people, Frankly, the people who withheld their votes or voted no are the biggest Trump supporters, the people who stand behind him to close the border, to control spending. So that's what we had to do. We had to get the attention of people to say we must do better," Self added.

Since the House Speaker election ended, the 119th Congress has officially started, and new members were sworn in by Johnson after the vote on Friday.
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