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President-Elect Trump got directly involved in the Speaker of the House election, according to CNN’s Kristen Holmes:
Ahead of today’s vote, Trump tells me he’s confident in Mike Johnson’s success; confirmed he’s been in touch with R holdouts, incl Rep Chip Roy. “Chip Roy will do what’s right for the country,” Trump said in brief interview. Also said he’s not eyeing any one else for Speaker.
“I’m just saying, we had the greatest presidential election. We won the popular vote by millions of votes..it would be nice to cement the election w an election here..that would just be a big beautiful exclamation point.”
Johnson then promptly went out and lost the first ballot as Reps. Ralph Norman Thomas Massie voted against Johnson. Rep. Self (R-TX) voted for Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL). Six other House Republicans didn’t vote when their names were first called.