Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Friday there needs to be “a full investigation” into the shooting death of a woman in Minneapolis by an ICE agent while asserting that the officer was “operating in self-defense.”

Johnson said he understood many people on social media, including “elected officials,” are commenting on the video of the shooting. “But we all understand there has to be a full investigation,” he added. “That’s the appropriate thing. That will happen.”

Johnson quickly added it “appears to us that the officer involved was operating in self-defense” and “he made a snap judgment, as they do.”

He also mentioned reports that the ICE officer responsible for the shooting had been involved an incident last year where he had been dragged by a car and injured and thus had reason to think his life “was in danger.”

“We’ll have to see,” Johnson said, referring to the investigation.

Donald Trump’s grip on congressional Republicans is slipping.

A series of rebukes on Blue Light News on Thursday highlighted how rank-and-file Republicans are starting to move with less regard for the president heading into the midterms.

Here’s what comes next on three fronts:

— Bringing back ACA credits: Seventeen House Republicans broke ranks to support a clean three-year restoration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies that expired last month. The bigger-than-anticipated revolt showed how politically dangerous skyrocketing insurance premiums could be.

The bill is expected to die in the Senate, as Majority Leader John Thune has no plans to bring it up for a vote.

But the Republican proponents hope the strong bipartisan support pushes the Senate to produce its own ACA solution. Senators are considering a plan that would reestablish the credits for two years with reforms. Text could come as soon as Tuesday, per Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-Ohio), as lawmakers race to get a deal over the finish line before open enrollment ends Jan. 15 in most states.

— Limiting Trump’s war powers: The Senate gave one of its strongest admonishments of the president Thursday when five Republicans helped advance a measure to constrain Trump’s military action abroad. An outraged president took to social media to say they “should never be elected to office again.”

The measure now heads to a final Senate vote next week. But it would still need to pass the House, which could prove more challenging. If Thursday’s failed veto override votes were any indication, House Republicans are less willing to break with the administration than their Senate counterparts.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told Blue Light News he was “inclined” to support the war powers resolution after this week’s briefings on the Venezuela operation, but that Trump’s Thursday attack was a tipping point.

“Reading the ugly response to those senators sort of convinced me to vote yes,” he said.

The House may soon vote on its own war powers measure from Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.).

— Installing the Jan. 6 plaque: The Senate voted Thursday to unanimously approve a measure, led by Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), to install a plaque in the Capitol honoring the officers who protected it on Jan. 6, 2021.

The stark moment of bipartisanship was a significant rebuke of Speaker Mike Johnson and the Trump DOJ, which argues the plaque — which has been made but not installed — does not comply with a 2022 law mandating its display because it lists the departments that responded, not individual officers.

The resolution does not need House approval, but it does put pressure on Johnson. It’s unclear when the Senate will install the plaque, which will remain in the chamber until a permanent location is identified on the west front of the Capitol.

What else we’re watching:   

— Thune’s border trip: Thune is leading a trip to the border in Texas on Friday with several GOP senators and Senate hopefuls to sell the “big, beautiful bill” Republicans passed last summer.  

— Funding progress: Appropriators hope to release bill text Sunday night of the next spending package they want to pass before the month-end funding cliff. It’s expected to include the State-Foreign Operations, Financial Services and Homeland Security bills, though the DHS portion is in flux after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent fatally shot a U.S. citizen in Minneapolis.

Meredith Lee Hill, Jordain Carney, Nicholas Wu, Lisa Kashinsky, Simon J. Levien, Hailey Fuchs and Katherine Tully-McManus contributed to this report.

A cadre of congressional Republicans dealt President Donald Trump significant defeats Thursday — a series of rebukes that demonstrate how his iron grip on Capitol Hill has weakened at the start of a critical election year.

The defiance kicked off in the Senate with a stunning vote, backed by five GOP senators, to move ahead with a measure that would constrain Trump on a matter he has presented as a signature triumph — his military intervention in Venezuela. Later in the day, 17 House Republicans joined with Democrats to rescue Obamacare subsidies Trump has repeatedly railed against.

And in a surprise move, senators of both parties agreed unanimously to erect a plaque honoring the officers who fought the mob at the Capitol on Jan, 6, 2021 — breaking from Trump’s false narrative about that day.

Trump took notice of the disloyalty in the first instance. Almost immediately, he shot off a social media post accusing the five Republicans of “attempting to take away our Powers to fight and defend the United States of America” and declaring that they “should never be elected to office again.”

None of the Republicans who voted crosswise with the White House Thursday said they intended to deal a personal brushback to Trump. But several said they were determined to assert congressional authority that many on Capitol Hill fear has withered over the past year.

Sen. Todd Young of Indiana insisted “any future commitment of U.S. forces in Venezuela must be subject to debate and authorization in Congress.”

“President Trump campaigned against forever wars, and I strongly support him in that position,” Young said in a statement. “A drawn-out campaign in Venezuela involving the American military, even if unintended, would be the opposite of President Trump’s goal of ending foreign entanglements.”

Speaking at the White House after the Senate vote, Vice President JD Vance rejected the notion that Trump’s grip on Congress was slipping, saying the GOP opposition was “based more on a legal technicality than any disagreement on policy.”

But the internal GOP dissent came to the delight of Democratic leaders, who are growing jubilant over their ability to highlight the splits and hammer Republicans heading into the midterms.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters “Republicans need to get their act together in terms of their leadership,” saying the party had been badly distracted from addressing Americans’ cost-of-living concerns.

After the war powers vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer hailed it as “a critical step” for the chamber in “reasserting its constitutional authority” and pushing back on an imperious president.

Still, there were signs that Trump’s sway over the GOP had not entirely eroded.

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), while voting to constrain Trump’s war powers, downplayed the break and reiterated multiple times that he supports the president.

“I don’t take any offense to that,” he said about Trump’s suggestion that he should not be reelected. “I think the president is great. I love the president. … I understand he’s ticked.”

And in a particularly stark demonstration of Trump’s continued sway over the House GOP, most Republicans in the chamber voted with him Thursday to sustain his veto of two bills they had allowed to pass unanimously just weeks before.

One bill benefited the Miccosukee Tribe of Florida, which opposed his administration’s attempt to build a vast migrant detention center in the Everglades. Another authorized a water project backed by Colorado politicians who have clashed with Trump, including Democratic Gov. Jared Polis and GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert.

“I am disappointed to see the lack of leadership, the amount of people that will fold, that will cave, that will not take a stand,” Boebert said after the vote. “This had nothing to do with policy. … Folks are afraid of getting a mean tweet or attacked.”

Some House Republicans who opposed the veto override cited White House officials who circled the chamber as the votes unfolded. It was clear they were taking note of the defectors, one GOP lawmaker said. Trump going nuclear on the five Republican senators who had defied him earlier in the day helped convince others to not stick their neck out.

“It wasn’t worth it,” another House Republican said. “It’s not my bill.”

Still, 35 Republicans broke ranks with Trump on the Colorado project while 24 did so on the tribal bill. Two committee chairs voted to override both vetoes.

Later in the day, a critical mass of House Republicans sent an incontrovertible message on an issue much more central to the GOP’s midterm prospects than expanding a tribal reservation — addressing health care costs.

Seventeen GOP members joined with Democrats to pass a bill that would revive lapsed Obamacare tax credits for three years. Trump, with the encouragement of Republican leaders on Capitol Hill, has refused to engage in bipartisan negotiations — instead slamming the subsidies as wasteful and calling on lawmakers to set up an alternate system where Americans get direct payments to help afford coverage.

But multiple Republicans, while still blaming Democrats for the morass, said Thursday they were not willing to stand by and do nothing amid the standoff. The expired subsidies were used by more than 20 million Americans, lowering their premiums in many cases by thousands of dollars per year.

“I have a bunch of my constituents that are depending on these programs, and I’m not going to leave them hanging because the Democrats broke the damn system,” said GOP Rep. Derrick Van Orden, who represents a swing Wisconsin district and referred to the bill as a “bridging mechanism.”

Asked if his vote could be seen as a rebuke of Trump, Van Orden said he “didn’t even think of it like that.”

Republicans were similarly roundabout when it came to the Senate’s action Thursday to display the contentious Jan. 6 plaque, which was created pursuant to a 2022 law but has remained in storage as Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to install it.

But the timing spoke volumes, coming two days after the fifth anniversary of the Capitol attack and the White House publication of a website casting the riot as the fault of Democrats and the Capitol Police itself.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), without mentioning Trump, said the plaque was a commemoration of “what I would consider to be one of the most significant stress tests for this institution since it was founded.”

“It was a great day for democracy because of the law enforcement officers,” he said. “We took a brief recess, we got ourselves together, the Capitol was secured and before we left the compound we came back and completed our constitutional duty” to certify the 2020 election.

Meanwhile, the fallout of the war powers vote is likely to continue. Thursday’s vote sets up final consideration of the resolution next week, where Trump’s commitment to an “America First” foreign policy will be debated. In addition to the pushback on his plans for Venezuela, many Republicans aired deep misgivings this week about his overt attempts to seize control of Greenland, a Danish territory.

The House is on track to take up a similar vote later this month after Democrats introduced a companion measure Thursday and expressed cautious optimism that more Republicans might vote to constrain the president.

Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said he was already “inclined” to support the war powers resolution after hearing from top administration officials in briefings this week and after hearing about Trump’s threats against Greenland. But he said the president’s attack on the five GOP senators Thursday cemented his position.

“Reading the ugly response to those senators sort of convinced me to vote yes,” he said.

Mia McCarthy and Calen Razor contributed to this report.