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\n

House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris told Fox Business on Thursday that the chamber\u2019s Republicans need to consider if current leadership \u201cis what we need\u201d going into unified GOP government next year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore the last couple of weeks, I was in his corner, but now we should consider what\u2019s the best path forward,\u201d Harris (R-Md.) said of Speaker Mike Johnson<\/u><\/a>. \u201cWe do need to consider whether \u2014 if we\u2019re going to advance Mr. Trump\u2019s agenda \u2014 whether the current leadership is what we need.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris\u2019 comments come after he signaled last week that he was on the fence about whether or not to support Johnson during the Jan. 3 speaker vote, saying in a statement that<\/u><\/a> he was \u201cnow undecided on what House leadership should look like in the 119th Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson is on thin ice with his right flank after his handling of short-term government funding. Though the speaker kept opposition on the final proposal, which will fund the government until mid-March, at only 34 GOP no votes, he sparked conference-wide frustration over his handling of the funding debate.<\/p>\n

The growing ire toward Johnson is coming at a bad moment for the Louisiana Republican\u2019s political future. Because Republicans are expected to have a 219-215 majority on Jan. 3, due to Matt Gaetz\u2019s early resignation, Johnson can only afford to have one Republican vote against him.<\/p>\n

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) became the first Republican to vow to vote for someone else. But several Republicans, including Harris, have said they are undecided or have refused to say if they will support Johnson in the wake of the continuing resolution.<\/p>\n

Some of Johnson\u2019s allies have publicly urged Trump to back him before the vote to help shore up his support and reduce the chances of a protracted speaker gavel fight. They\u2019ve also warned that if they can\u2019t quickly settle the speaker race, they risk not being able to certify Trump\u2019s electoral college win<\/u><\/a> on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n

Johnson has worked hard to keep Trump on his side. And while the president-elect hasn\u2019t publicly crossed Johnson since the funding debate, one Trump adviser told Blue Light News earlier this month<\/u><\/a> that there wouldn\u2019t be pushback if someone challenged Johnson.<\/p>\n

Harris on Thursday said that Trump is going to need \u201cstrong leadership\u201d given House Republicans\u2019 thin margins and floated that the incoming president is \u201cevaluating whether that exists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Harris said on Thursday that he was supporting Johnson until his handling of the spending debate, he floated Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) as a potential speaker candidate during a campaign stop with outgoing Rep. Bob Good (R-Va.) and other Freedom Caucus members in March. Jordan has repeatedly said that he is not running for the speaker\u2019s gavel, or any other leadership position.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like Jim Jordan. I think he should have a shot at being speaker. I think he will have a shot at being speaker after the election,\u201d Harris said in March, while explaining why he didn\u2019t support a potential ouster vote against Johnson at that time.<\/p>\n

Jordan was one of the GOP\u2019s speaker nominees last year in the wake of Speaker Kevin McCarthy\u2019s ouster but he was unable to get 218 votes on the floor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris told Fox Business on Thursday that the chamber\u2019s Republicans need to consider if current leadership \u201cis what we need\u201d going into unified GOP government next year. \u201cBefore the last couple of weeks, I was in his corner, but now we should consider what\u2019s the best path forward,\u201d Harris (R-Md.) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4139","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4139\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}