Jeffries on Johnson's future as speaker: 'There will be no Democrats available to save him'
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said on Sunday that Democrats will not save Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) if he fails to get enough support from his own party to retain his gavel.
Jeffries pointed to the collapse of the bipartisan government funding agreement as a key reason Johnson would not get support from Democrats, when his speakership comes up for a vote again at the start of January.
Asked in an interview on “Inside with Jen Psaki” whether Jeffries thinks Johnson is at risk of losing his position, Jeffries said, “I think that's a real risk.”
“And there will be no Democrats available to save him — or the extreme MAGA Republicans — from themselves,” Jeffries continued, “based on the breaching of a bipartisan agreement that reflected priorities that were good for the American people.”
The House approved legislation to avert a government shutdown on Friday, just hours before the deadline. Nearly all Democrats and a majority of Republicans voted in support of the legislation, which marked Johnson’s fourth proposal aimed at funding the government and averting a shutdown.
Some Democrats have criticized the legislation since it lacked several policy provisions that were included in the original funding deal that they struck with GOP leadership earlier in the week. Johnson never brought that bipartisan, bicameral package to the floor, however, since President-elect Trump made his opposition to the package clear.
“We're going to have to continue to work on several of those as we move forward, including plussing up resources for community health centers, which is a bipartisan priority that Republicans walked away from, even though it benefits people in urban America, rural America, small town America, the heartland of America, as well as Appalachia,” Jeffries said.
“But we'll have the ability to wage those battles over the next few weeks and the next few months given that this is only a short-term continuing resolution that will expire on March 14,” he continued.
The package funds the government at current levels through March 14, extends the farm bill for one year and appropriates billions of dollars in disaster relief and assistance for farmers.