US House Speaker Mike Johnson's future hangs in balance as he scrambles for deal

20/12/2024 16:21

Mike Johnson's hold on the speakership of the U.S. House of Representatives has been tenuous almost since the day he was elected.



The soft-spoken Johnson, 52, had never served in the higher levels of House leadership before. His decision to move forward with a massive bipartisan spending bill in December to keep the government funded drew intense fire from hard-right members of his party – and most importantly, President-elect Donald Trump.



Trump told House Republicans to scrap the first bill on Wednesday and a second version Johnson negotiated on Thursday failed in a vote on the House floor when 38 Republicans rejected Trump's demand to lift the federal government's debt ceiling and the measure Johnson had spent a day negotiating.



That left Johnson and his allies scrambling to find another way to avoid a Christmas shutdown, something Republican leaders had hoped to prevent given that they take control of both the House and the Senate next month.