Fox News reporter: 'The numbers are not there' for Johnson as House speaker

03 January

When Friday morning, January 3 arrived and a new Congress was getting ready to be seated, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) was hoping that he would have enough votes from fellow Republicans to remain House speaker.

But on right-wing Fox News, reporter Aishah Hasnie expressed her doubts about Johnson's ability to be confirmed.

Hasnie, on the morning show "Fox & Friends," told her colleagues, "We will see if Mike Johnson can hang on to the gavel as of this hour. The math is not mathing, and the numbers are not there for the speaker."

In 2024, Johnson received a lot of votes from House Democrats — including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) — after far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) tried to get him ousted as speaker. Democrats helped saved Johnson, but Hasnie doesn't expect that to happen this time.

Hasnie told the "Fox & Friends" hosts, "Republicans are entering into this new Congress with a very slim majority. We talk about it all the time. Here are the numbers: 219-2015. All Democrats are expected to vote for a leader, Hakeem Jeffries. So they will not vote for Mike Johnson, which means that he can only afford to lose one Republican."

The Fox News reporter continued, "Right now, there is one Republican official no vote. That's Thomas Massie."

Hasnie also noted that among House Republicans, there are still "multiple undecided members…. who don't want to say how they’re voting until the vote actually takes place." And she pointed out that when she spoke to Johnson on Thursday, January 2 and asked him about the undecided Republicans, he told her, "People are talking through process changes they want."

Watch the full Fox News video below or at this link.

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