CNN Analyst Warns Shutdown Showdown Will Decide the Fate of Mike Johnson’s Speakership: ‘This Really Is a Test for Him’

CNN analyst Seung Min Kim broke down how Republican Mike Johnson’s tenure as House Speaker will face its first major stress test with the effort to settle on a Congressional spending bill before another potential shutdown.

Kim joined CNN News Central on Friday to reflect on the transition period as the speakership transferred from former Speaker Kevin McCarthy to Johnson. This was a partial subject of McCarthy’s interview with CNN’s Manu Raju where the former speaker bashed the eight Republican representatives who enabled his ouster.

McCarthy’s removal came days after he introduced a temporary funding bill, which prevented a government shutdown, but now Congress only has a week to fund the government before it happens again. Now that its on Johnson to resolve the government’s funding, Kim explained how the speaker will rely on his “honeymoon” phase with his fellow Republicans, plus the “goodwill” he earned by cutting IRS funding in order to provide emergency aid to Israel.

“McCarthy’s beef with conservatives, the hard-right in this conference. certainly was very versatile. Mike Johnson does not have that among other house Republicans,” Kim said. “But once you get down to brass tacks and you have to govern, he is certainly facing the same problems the former speaker did with the narrow, narrow majority that House Republicans have, and with the coalition that you have in the House.”

With Johnson’s task of corralling the House behind a spending bill that can pass, Kim assessed that “as a leader, as someone who has to actually govern, this really is a test for him.”

“We don’t know how he’s going to deal with those issues just yet with only a week away from the shutdown,” she said.

Watch above via CNN.