'Down to the wire': Steve Scalise predicts House control may be decided today
EXCLUSIVE: Americans could know the balance of power in the House of Representatives as soon as Thursday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., anticipates.
The top House Republican spoke with Fox News Digital after his party won commanding victories in the White House and Senate on Election Day. The Fox News Decision Desk projected the GOP having a slight edge over Democrats in the House as of Wednesday afternoon.
"I mean, California's the main state still. You know, in a lot of those close races, our incumbents are leading the way – by small margins, but we knew there would be small margins," Scalise told Fox News Digital on Wednesday evening.
"We also have some seats that we have a chance to flip that are leaning our way, too. So, you know, we're watching all of them, and they're coming down the wire. But I think we'll know by [Thursday], hopefully."
Republicans in President-elect Trump’s sphere and elsewhere are "in a great mood" after Tuesday night, Scalise said.
"It appears we're going to hold the House and flip the Senate," Scalise said. "You know, it's going to be a rare opportunity within any government to really focus in January on turning this country around."
Scalise already signaled part of what that may look like earlier in the day, when he publicly called for the various prosecutions into Trump to end now that he was re-elected president.
He and other Trump allies had long dismissed the criminal probes as a misuse of the federal government, despite some of them leading to grand jury indictments and criminal convictions.
Asked if a Republican-led Washington would look to reform the justice system to make such perceived attacks harder, Scalise said, "There needs to be reform."
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"I think this is one of the issues where the public spoke very loudly last night, that they want to end the weaponization of the federal government against political enemies," Scalise said.
The Biden administration has denied the federal investigations into Trump are politically motivated.
"President Trump's made it clear, he’s going to clean house. I think people want to see, you know, in essence, the dirty cops get removed," Scalise said.
"They want to have restored faith in all of these once great agencies. And the American people deserve that, because these agencies need to be focused on doing their job, and that's to keep Americans safe."
In a further show of confidence that Republicans would win the House, Scalise sent a letter to House Republicans on Wednesday evening announcing he was running for majority leader again.
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In the four-page memo, he detailed what the first 100 day goals of a Republican federal government would look like.
"Now it is up to us to work closely with Trump to enact legislation that will provide long-term relief and put our country on a sustainable trajectory. In the first 100 days, House Republicans will advance a bold, conservative agenda that will get the economy back on track, lock in low tax rates, and secure our southern border," he wrote in the letter obtained by Fox News Digital.
He pledged Republicans would push through conservative reforms via a process called "reconciliation," which has been used by both parties in the past to force through significant policy reforms in a budget bill that only needs a simple majority to pass the Senate, instead of the traditional 60-vote threshold.