What looked like certain failure ended with sudden success for Mike Johnson on Friday, after Donald Trump was able to convince two Freedom Caucus holdouts, Reps. Ralph Norman and Keith Self, to switch their votes to hand Johnson the speaker’s gavel for the 119th Congress.
The first ballot in the speaker election appeared to end without Johnson having the votes, after three Republicans voted for other GOP lawmakers. But as the clerks tallied the results, Johnson and his Republican allies worked the holdouts.
After about an hour of arm-twisting — both on the House floor and out of public view in the Republican cloakroom — as well as a phone call from Trump, Norman and Self reversed themselves.