Morning Report — Speaker Johnson vows to deliver

by Alexis Simendinger and Kristina Karisch - 10/26/23 6:30 AM ET

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The House has a Speaker again.

After three weeks of uncertainty, the House elected Mike Johnson (R-La.) to be the 56th Speaker on Wednesday, capping off a chaotic period that paralyzed the lower chamber in stunning fashion. House Republicans hope that Johnson can steer them around a series of legislative and political landmines in the weeks and months to come — an objective that is poised to be a heavy lift in the fractured GOP conference. 

A reminder: If Congress doesn’t pass a funding bill, the government will shut down on Nov. 17.

Johnson’s ascension marks the end of a nasty and tumultuous period for the House GOP, which kicked off with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) ouster, after which the conference cycled through four Speaker nominees and saw tensions reach a boiling point before ultimately settling on Johnson as the next leader (The Hill).

“We’re in the majority right now,” Johnson said in a news conference on the House steps following his swearing-in. “We’ve gone through a little bit of character building, and you know what it’s produced, more strength, more perseverance, and a lot of hope. And that’s what we’re about to deliver to the American people.”

Staving off a shutdown will be the top priority for Johnson in the coming days and weeks, coupled with the White House’s proposed $100 billion national security supplemental to support Israel and Ukraine amid their respective conflicts.

For the Louisiana conservative, who formerly acted as vice chair of the Republican conference, the new post marks a rapid ascent in the Republican ranks. The relatively unknown legislator has been serving in Congress since 2017; he’s been known as a staunch conservative with a low profile. And while his anonymity in Washington was a driving force in his election as Speaker, his novice status won’t necessarily help him govern.

“Politics is like the fight business. The longer you’re in it, the more you get beat up,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) told Politico, explaining Johnson’s survival.

▪ The Hill: Here are five things to know about Johnson.

▪ The New York Times: Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who serves on the Judiciary Committee alongside Johnson, is brutal in his evaluation of Johnson and Republicans more broadly, saying the new Speaker has “much better manners” than GOP firebrands but “is a MAGA extremist in substance.”

President Biden called Johnson on Wednesday afternoon to congratulate him on the election, and the president “expressed that he looks forward to working together to find common ground on behalf of the American people,” according to the White House. In a statement, Biden called on all elected officials in Washington to act responsibly and above partisanship.

“We need to move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown in 22 days,” Biden said. “Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can.”

Reality check Johnson could soon face the decision of green lighting impeachment of the president.

▪ NBC News: Johnson played a key role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He led an amicus brief in support of a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory in four battleground states.

▪ The Hill: Biden says he’s not concerned Johnson might overturn the 2024 election results.

▪ The Hill: Democrats and abortion rights groups are already seizing on Johnson’s anti-abortion record and appear ready to use it as a cudgel against the GOP conference ahead of the 2024 elections.

▪ ABC News: How Johnson spent years fighting against LGBTQ+ rights.

Johnson is stepping into the Speaker’s role at a time where the Republican Conference is sharply divided and government funding is swiftly running out. The Hill’s Niall Stanage outlines the challenges the new Speaker will face, from passing spending bills to dealing with foreign aid to Israel and Ukraine. 

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), whose motion to vacate ousted McCarthy in the first place, on Wednesday seemed unconcerned by how Johnson might handle the upcoming Nov. 17 funding deadline, telling reporters: “Whether or not we have to have any sort of stopgap government bridge, I’m sure that’s something we’ll address in the coming days.”

Johnson is proposing a temporary funding patch lasting at least until Jan. 15, with little specifics. Such a stopgap would help to appease centrists, but its future — and viability as the House contends with tight deadlines — is unclear (Politico). In the chamber’s first move under Johnson, the House on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to pass a resolution declaring solidarity with Israel, pledging to give its government whatever security assistance it needs (The New York Times).

SENATE REPUBLICANS ARE RELIEVED the House has a Speaker again — they just don’t know much about him. While Herculean tasks await Johnson during his tenure, including working with the Senate to fund the government and on a supplemental aid package, getting to know his colleagues across the Capitol is now also firmly on the list. Most GOP senators indicated that they don’t know Johnson personally and still don’t even know much about him.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) acknowledged to The Hill that he has never met Johnson. Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, said that he doesn’t “know him very well” but “may have met him” in the past.

But senators, who by and large had grown increasingly concerned and desperate as the House sat in a stalemate, are mostly relieved to have someone running the chamber. And they are willing to give Johnson a chance.

“He seems to be a good pick. I’m all for him. Anybody that can get through,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told reporters with a laugh, adding that he too does not know him well. “No, not much. Seems like a very capable fellow.”

Lawmakers, including Thune, were among more than 300 guests invited to the State Dinner Wednesday under a dazzling tent on the South Lawn — a chance for some subdued power-brokering and bipartisan socializing amid toasts to Australia and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. New Yorkers Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Democrat Rep. Gregory Meeks were invited. 

At the dinner, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) told pool reporter Judy Kurtz of The Hill that a House supplemental bill for national security assistance “will link the major threats in the world and that will be: Russia’s threat to Ukraine in Europe, China’s threat to the Pacific, the Ayatollah’s threat to the Middle East, and securing the border and keeping those threats out of the United States.” He encouraged Biden to work with Republicans.

Former Armed Services Committee chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) was invited to the dinner, plus Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin (D-Md.), ranking Foreign Relations member Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), and Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.). Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) was an invited guest and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) attended, recounting to a reporter how his Jewish parents managed to escape the Nazis. 

3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:

▪ The United Auto Workers secured a new tentative labor deal with Ford Wednesday, potentially ending a six-week strike at one automaker while negotiations continue at General Motors and Stellantis.

▪ A manhunt involving hundreds of police officers is underway in Lewiston, Maine, after at least 16 were killed in deadly overnight shootings that shook the city of about 38,000 people. Dozens more were injured; the death toll, which could rise, is the largest from a mass shooting this year.

▪ Boeing, which contracted to deliver new Air Force One jets in 2027 for a fixed $3.9 billion, regrets its fixed-price deal with the government because engineering changes, labor and parts problems resulted in third-quarter losses of $482 million. The company told investors Wednesday it needs to get past what it bemoans as “legacy contracts.”

LEADING THE DAY

© The Associated Press / Evan Vucci | President Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese at the White House on Wednesday.

ADMINISTRATION & MIDDLE EAST

👉Israel’s ground forces waged the largest incursion of the war on Thursday, entering northern Gaza with tanks to attack Hamas targets before withdrawing, according to Israeli military, which released video (Reuters).

Biden may be the most stalwart defender of Israel’s war with Hamas, but he is not without doubts and equivocations, especially when it comes to the safety of American lives and his experience with unintended consequences during war.

Fox News and The Washington Post: 24 U.S. service members were injured during last week’s attacks in Iraq, Syria. 

ISRAEL’S MILITARY HAS A “DUTY” to defend the country by pummeling Gaza with missiles to try to destroy Hamas, but Israeli settlers’ retaliatory attacks against Palestinians must stop, the president said Wednesday.

“They have to be held accountable. It has to stop now,” Biden said in the Rose Garden while hosting Albanese during a state visit. He blamed “extremist settlers” for “pouring gasoline” on the violence in the Middle East since the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7.

The Associated Press and The Hill: Leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah holds talks with senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad figures.

BIDEN HAS REJECTED the idea of a ceasefire but seems to favor a fluid version of what diplomats are calling a “humanitarian pause,” although he denied a report that the U.S. asked the Israeli military and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to delay a ground invasion of Gaza, which U.S. experts predict will result in the deaths of troops, hostages and civilians.

On Wednesday, Biden said the U.S. is negotiating with intermediaries to try to get more international aid through Egypt’s Rafah gate to help desperate civilians, many of them children, who are homeless, without food, water, fuel or medicine. Those talks have gone on for days. Americans waiting at the gate for more than a week to leave Gaza have been blocked by Hamas.

He questioned the accuracy of Palestinian casualty statistics but conceded that the distinction between targeting civilians and aiming for Hamas militants should be carefully considered by Israel as it weighs the risks of a wider war — and what comes after the conflict.

“I’M SURE INNOCENTS HAVE BEEN KILLED, and it’s the price of waging a war,” Biden told reporters. “Israel should be incredibly careful to be sure that they’re focusing on going after the folks that are propagating this war,” he added.

The president reiterated his support for a two-state solution, a concept described for decades and never achieved.

What are the tough U.S. military lessons being shared with Israel amid the country’s planning to destroy Hamas? The U.S. can paint a vivid picture of civilian slaughter. During the eight-month siege to liberate Mosul from Islamic insurgents, as many as 10,000 people were killed, including at least 3,200 civilians from airstrikes, artillery fire or mortar rounds between October 2016 and the fall of the Islamic State group in July 2017, according to an Associated Press investigation. About the same number of civilians were killed or taken hostage by militants and used as human shields as they fled the city (The Associated Press).

The Hill: The Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday voted to forward the nomination of Jacob “Jack” Lew to be U.S. ambassador to Israel.

CHINA IN MIND: Meanwhile, Biden is weighing relations with China and a likely meeting next month in San Francisco with President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC), hosted this year by the United States. The president repeated on Wednesday that the U.S. intends to compete with China. “But I’m not looking for conflict,” he added.

Xi said on Wednesday that China is willing to cooperate with the United States as both nations manage their differences and work together to respond to global challenges, according to Chinese state media.

China’s leader last week urged an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas — a topic that dominated unresolved discussions Wednesday at the U.N. Security Council — but the Chinese leader has shifted somewhat to embracing an elusive two-state solution and independent Palestine as an alternative to war.

On Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) had a surprise meeting with Xi in Beijing during a display of warmth and laughter considered scarce in U.S.-Chinese relations for years. The governor is on a weeklong tour of China to promote climate cooperation.

“I’m here in expectation, as you suggest, of turning the page, of renewing our friendship and reengaging [on] foundational and fundamental issues that will determine our collective faith in the future,” Newsom said in brief opening remarks ahead of his meeting with Wang Yi, China’s top diplomat.

Foreign Minister Wang will meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken this evening to pave the way for a possible Biden-Xi meeting.

The Hill: China called the U.S. a “disruptor” of peace after a reported Chinese military buildup.

Today’s Capitol Hill staffer spotlight: A legislative correspondent who likes to escape politics by playing basketball and hiking, meet Max West.

WHERE AND WHEN

The House meets at 10 a.m.

The Senate convenes at 10 a.m. to resume consideration of the Military Construction, Veterans Affairs, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 11 a.m. 

Vice President Harris will join Biden for the President’s Daily Brief. She and Secretary of State Antony Blinken will host a luncheon at 12:40 p.m. in honor of Australian Prime Minister Albanese. Harris will ceremonially swear in members of the President’s Advisory Commission on Advancing Education, Equity, Excellence and Economic Opportunity for Black Americans at 5 p.m. in the Indian Treaty Room.

The secretary of state also will deliver remarks at a signing ceremony at 2:30 p.m. for the U.S.-Australia Technology Safeguards Agreement at the Department of State. Blinken will meet at 5 p.m. with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Department of State. The secretary will host a working dinner for Wang at 7:30 p.m.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen will participate in a fireside conversation at 1:30 p.m. with Bloomberg News’s Washington Bureau. 

Economic indicators: The Bureau of Economic Analysis at 8:30 a.m. will release the gross domestic product advance report for the third quarter. The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report claims for unemployment benefits filed in the week that ended Oct. 20.

The White House daily press briefing is scheduled at 1 p.m. Participating will be Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, and White House national security spokesman.

ZOOM IN

© The Associated Press / Lynne Sladky | Miami, pictured in January, hosts the Republican National Committee debate next month.

POLITICS & CAMPAIGNS

The third Republican presidential debate in Miami next month could be one of the last opportunities for some White House candidates to make their case to the GOP base before the race kicks up with the Iowa caucuses in January. As The Hill’s Julia Mueller reports, in what many see as a scramble for second place behind frontrunner Trump, the debate presents a high-profile opportunity to reach a big audience before voting starts, and it could be a make-or-break moment for candidates who have struggled to gain traction. The White House hopefuls will first need to meet the third debate’s heightened qualification requirements to get on the stage — and then capture attention and momentum from the podium. 

Just four candidates appear to have qualified so far for the debate on Nov. 8, half the number that made it to the first and second debates earlier this year. They are: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, Vivek Ramaswamy and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Trump, the frontrunner, did not participate in the first two debates, and will hold a Hialeah, Fla., rally on Nov. 8 as counter-programming (The New York Times).

2024 ROUNDUP:

▪ Support for Israel is now a top priority for evangelicals in the leadoff Iowa Republican presidential caucuses, now less than three months away.

▪ Trump and his campaign spent Tuesday seizing on the 60-day deadline of what he has called the “kiss of death” timeline for DeSantis, a GOP primary rival.

▪ In North Carolina, former Republican Rep. Mark Walker exited the governor’s race to seek a return to his former congressional district, now redrawn, which he left in 2021.

▪ Almost a quarter of respondents in a new poll say American politics have gotten so far off track that “patriots may have to resort to violence” to save the United States.

ELSEWHERE

© The Associated Press / Seth Wenig | Former President Trump on Wednesday was fined $10,000 for breaking a gag order instituted during his civil business fraud trial in New York.

TRUMP WORLD

Michael Cohen, the former lawyer and fixer for Donald Trump when he was in business, wrapped up two days as a witness against his former boss in a civil fraud trial in New York City and found himself in a tangle Wednesday. 

Under questioning, Cohen undercut his testimony of Tuesday when he said Trump didn’t explicitly tell him to falsely inflate his financial statements, explaining that Trump was like a “mob boss” who said what he wanted without directly ordering it.

Trump’s lawyer, who has established that Cohen has lied under oath in the past, asked the judge for a directed verdict to dismiss the case, which was “absolutely denied.”

The Associated Press: Trump took the stand Wednesday under surprise questioning by the judge and was fined $10,000 for comments he made in violation of a gag order. It was the second such violation this week. 

The Hill: Trump said he’s skeptical that former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, reported to have accepted an immunity deal in the federal criminal prosecution of Trump’s actions before and after the 2020 election, would have made such an agreement.  

HEALTH & WELLBEING

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sounded an alarm in a Tuesday report about a mental health crisis for health workers. Nearly half of such workers reported feeling burned out last year, an increase over the previous four years, according to nationwide survey data from 2018 and 2022. COVID-19 made things worse (CNN).

The Hill: Advocacy groups call on Congress to reauthorize global HIV initiative.

Dengue, the excruciating mosquito-borne disease, is surging throughout the world and coming to places that had never had it. California just confirmed a rare U.S. case (The New York Times).

OPINION

■ Can Speaker Mike Johnson govern? by The Wall Street Journal editorial board.

■ Joe Biden’s in-person campaigning problem, by J.T. Young, opinion contributor, The Hill.

THE CLOSER

© The Associated Press / John Raoux | NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida last year.

Take Our Morning Report Quiz

And finally … 🪓 It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Up to our eyeballs in accounts of worldwide discord, we’re looking for smart guesses about splits, struggles, feuds (and worse) in the latest headlines.

Be sure to email your responses to asimendinger@digital-staging.thehill.com and kkarisch@digital-staging.thehill.com — please add “Quiz” to your subject line. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday. 

Which performers until recently kept publicly quiet about separations from their respective spouses — which they say occurred years ago?