Mike Johnson’s 'chaotic' and 'ineffective' speakership a 'disaster’: report

15 February 2024

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson‘s 113 days as head of the U.S. House of Representatives has been a “disaster,” with his leadership team and rank-and-file members largely kept in the dark amid mounting losses both on policy and at the polls.

“This is the most chaotic, inefficient and ineffective majority we’ve seen in decades covering Congress. It started this way under former Speaker Kevin McCarthy and has gotten worse under Johnson,” write Punchbowl News’ Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan.

They detail a spate of major blows from this week alone, including the major upset in New York, as Republicans lost the congressional seat formerly held by disgraced, indicted, and ousted GOP Rep. George Santos, the resignation of yet another Committee Chairman, Homeland Security’s Mark Green, and Wednesday’s surprise warning from Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner, which experts suggest was irresponsible and premature.

“Johnson truly keeps his own counsel. His leadership colleagues often begin the week having no idea what the speaker is thinking or what he hopes to achieve.”

Punchbowl adds Johnson, “Provided absolutely no insight to rank-and-file lawmakers on how he’ll handle the Senate’s bipartisan $95 billion foreign aid package,” “Decided against putting a bill on the floor to provide billions of dollars in new aid to Israel without offsets,” and, “Lost a sixth rule vote on the House floor.”

Aaron Fritschner, the Deputy Chief of Staff to U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D-VA) described Wednesday’s rule vote loss: “A rule just failed for the SIXTH time under this House Republican majority, a thing that had not happened once in 20+ years before this session of Congress. In the past 50 years only one Congress, the 93rd (1973-74), saw more rules defeated. A historic record of failure!”

On X, Sherman explains that members of Johnson’s own leadership team are growing impatient: “In all the time i’ve been covering congress and written about the Republican leadership, i’ve never had more people come to me in the leadership and say that we were spot on in what we’ve written. Patience is running very thin with Johnson, has been the overwhelming message i’ve gotten.”

Minutes later, Sherman added: ” ‘We’re in a bad spot, and that’s the understatement of the century,’ a leadership source said to me just now.”

“This is all correct,” Jacob Peters, Communications Director and Senior Advisor to U.S. Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), writes, responding to Sherman on X, “but the issue underpinning all of this is that it’s the policy of this Speaker and his predecessor to not do the one thing necessary to pass legislation on major issues (FISA, foreign aid, etc): work with Democrats.”

Veteran journalist John Harwood comments on Sherman’s post: “the disaster that is House Republican leadership simply reflects the disaster that is Donald Trump’s Republican Party.” He asks, “how can anyone effectively lead an enterprise that exists in the real world but is built on fantasies and lies and demagoguery?”

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