Democrats won’t throw House Speaker Mike Johnson a lifeline if his Republican colleagues turn against him again, says Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — still furious over last week’s botched spending deal.
Jeffries (D-NY) ripped into Johnson (R-La.) over his handling of last week’s imploded government funding pact and argued that the Republican had poisoned the well with Democrats, should another revolt fester.
“I think that’s a real risk,” Jeffries added of a new GOP mutiny against Johnson during an interview on “Inside with Jen Psaki” on Sunday.
“And there will be no Democrats available to save him — or the extreme MAGA Republicans — from themselves,” the New York City pol said.
Last week, Johnson backtracked from a deal to avert a government shutdown after facing a revolt from conservatives over the 1,500-odd page bill.
Republican detractors had decried the length of the legislation and some of its added spending measures.
President-elect Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, tech magnate Elon Musk and other prominent figures urged Republicans to tank the deal.
Johnson then yanked the measure in favor of a slimmed-down stopgap bill late Thursday and brought it up for a vote — despite top Democrats telling reporters that the minority had not been consulted at all over the new proposal.
Ultimately, that new measure went up in flames and Johnson reached a subsequent agreement Friday with Democrats, who were still livid about the reneging from the original deal.
The last-minute deal reached out Friday keeps the government open through mid-March.
“We’re going to have to continue to work on several of those as we move forward,” Jeffries said of the provisions that got chopped out of the original deal.
“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.”
Johnson first attained the speaker’s gavel in October of last year after a mutiny led by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) toppled former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), grinding the lower chamber to a standstill for nearly a month.
It took a record 15 votes by the House in January of last year for Johnson to become speaker — despite having a slightly larger majority than the one Johnson will get in the 119th Congress — underscoring the turbulent road ahead for him.
In May, Democrats came to Johnson’s rescue during a motion to oust him that was introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) after he took up a vote on aid for war-torn Ukraine.
Now as Johnson recovers from a bruising government shutdown fight last week, he seeking to stave off GOP defections ahead of the speaker’s election Jan. 3, 2025.
