‘Right Guy, At The Right Time’: Republicans Tell CNN’s Manu Raju Why They Are Rallying Around Mike Johnson For Speaker

CNN’s chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju spoke to several GOP House members who are rallying around Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) for speaker. Raju reported he believes Johnson has the votes to win the speakership and is “expected to get the votes on the House floor today.”

“You know, obviously, I did not support the removal of Kevin McCarthy. I think it was, you know, arguably the stupidest move ever made in politics. But we have to move forward. And so we’re going to rally around Mike Johnson and elect him as speaker tomorrow and get back to work,” Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) told Raju on Wednesday.

Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA), the leader of the House Freedom Caucus, said, “It’s a different situation now. There was a trust factor with leadership last time.”

“You guys are going to give him some leeway on that,” Raju asked Perry, regarding spending. Perry quickly agreed.

“Was it worth throwing out McCarthy for Johnson?” Raju asked Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX).

“Well, look, I mean, that’s actually not the question at this point. The question here is, is Mike Johnson the right guy at the right time? And I think he is,” Roy replied.

“So Mike Johnson is relatively inexperienced in his fourth term in the House,” Raju began, summing up his reporting:

A former conservative talk show host, former state legislator, someone who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, someone who aligns himself with some of the far right members of his conference in terms of his ideology of social conservative politics and the like, also led the effort in the House to try to overturn the 2020 election, something that some of his critics will point out as well, but nevertheless still expected to get the votes on the House floor today.

And then huge issues ahead. John, dealing with the government funding, dealing with aid to Israel and Ukraine. All these weeks of Republican infighting has only sidetracked their efforts to deal with those key issues, something that Johnson will have to confront immediately if he gets the votes today.

Watch the full clip above via CNN.