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"Although the Constitution does not so require, the Speaker has always been a Member of the House," the report said, and outlined recent instances where non-members received votes. The Constitution does not specify that the speaker must actually be a member of the House and the Congressional Research Service emphasized that point in a 2021 report about elections for the speaker. Republican Representative Lauren Boebert suggested that she could nominate Trump during an interview with Sean Hannity on Wednesday.
Speaker Johnson is moving forward with foreign aid bills despite threat to oust him
"What this would lead to is a deep internal divide about whether to remove the rule or not, but Trump would likely win this battle." The roiling civil war on Capitol Hill that’s led to the ousting of Kevin McCarthy as speaker of the US House of Representatives has left Republicans scrambling for a replacement. With no clear successor, the risk of further acute embarrassment to the party, and a slew of legislative priorities on the docket, desperation may already be setting in. While theoretically possible, it is unlikely that Trump will receive enough support overall to be elected House Speaker.
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The former president is facing a total of 91 criminal charges spread among four state and federal criminal indictments. Under congressional rules, the House speaker does not have to be a sitting member of Congress, though all of them so far have been. In other words, Hannity told his audience that “some House Republicans have been in contact with” Trump about serving as speaker, and a few members have even publicly endorsed the idea, but without a rules change, this isn’t going to happen. The Speaker of the House is elected by simple majority of the voting members of the House.
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Trump told Real America's Voice host David Brody that becoming speaker of the House was not something "I would have considered." He acknowledged there was talk about him taking over the position and later told host Wayne Allyn Root that it's "very interesting." So while on a number of technicalities, the Republican party could change its rules to accommodate Trump, it may cause even further division within the party at a time when it has already been left reeling by Kevin McCarthy's exit. Even after such a corralling, Trump would need to be voted in and the likelihood of that would be a significant challenge, as Iwan Morgan, professor emeritus of U.S. studies at University College London told Newsweek. Politics professor Todd Landman, of the University of Nottingham, told Newsweek that while it's possible to change the rules, this would not be without risk for the GOP. The text quoted by Snell is from the House Republican Conference for the 118th Congress, internal congressional rules agreed upon by the GOP.
Republican Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida reignited chatter of Trump becoming speaker of the House if Republicans reclaim the chamber in 2022 on Tuesday, telling reporters he's spoken with Trump about the possibility. Historically, the speaker of the House has been a member of Congress, but the majority party can pick whoever they want. "Even for those who support Trump, this would be akin to turning over the House majority to someone who would only use the office to run a presidential campaign," Andersen said.
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That's a suggestion that has been floated by some of the former president's supporters in the past and it is technically possible for Trump to fill that role if a majority of those voting choose him. The person must be nominated by a member of the House, then chosen by a majority of the full membership of the House. For a House with 435 members, that's 218 votes, although there are two vacancies right now.
Moreover, Article I vests all "legislative Powers" in the Senate and the House, and the House is "composed of Members" elected every two years. Unlike the "other Officers" elected by the House, like the clerk and the sergeant at arms, the speaker engages in legislative functions. By statute, the speaker must sign enrolled bills before they are presented to the president and administer the oath of office to other members. An enrolled bill signed by a nonlegislator could be vulnerable to legal challenge. "A lot of people have been calling me about speaker," Trump said Wednesday morning outside a New York City courthouse for the New York attorney general's civil fraud trial against him. The current rules of the Republican House conference actually prohibit someone charged with a felony from serving in leadership.
Foreign aid passes: How the delay in funding affected Ukraine and Israel wars
Trump allies fear ousting Mike Johnson will weaken Republicans - Axios
Trump allies fear ousting Mike Johnson will weaken Republicans.
Posted: Thu, 11 Apr 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
The House is currently without a speaker after Kevin McCarthy was removed from the position in a vote on Tuesday, the first time in history a speaker has been removed via a no-confidence vote. Rep. Patrick McHenry, a close ally of McCarthy's, has been named speaker pro tempore, while Reps. Steve Scalise and Jim Jordan have both announced they are running to be the next speaker. While Trump, 77, has already been deemed the preferred speaker choice of at least two House Republicans, a little-known House GOP rule barring those with felony indictments from serving in the role could make him ineligible for the post. (The Hill) — A handful of Republicans have floated the possibility of electing former President Trump as the next House speaker, but that may not be possible under current GOP House conference rules.
Is Donald Trump Eligible to Be Speaker of the House?
But unlike in the case of leadership posts, the rules permit the conference to waive the committee step-aside requirement by a simple majority vote. The current rule suggests that Trump could not hold a role in Republican leadership, including the speakership, since he has been indicted on numerous felony charges that can carry at least two years of imprisonment sentences. The last time a member of House party leadership — defined as one of the top three leaders — was indicted, they stepped aside. Tom DeLay, a Republican from Texas, left his post as majority leader under then-Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) in September 2005 after a grand jury accused him of conspiring to violate political fundraising law to help House candidates in his state. Republicans’ own rules forbid someone under criminal indictment for a felony from serving in party leadership.
But the Republican conference's rules for the 118th Congress suggest Trump could be ineligible to serve as speaker. At the beginning of the year, House Republicans adopted a set of rules including Rule 26, which says a member of leadership who has been indicted for a felony that could carry a sentence of two or more years in prison "shall" vacate their position. Trump faces 91 felony charges across his four criminal state and federal court cases.
Buchanan is a close Scalise ally after getting his support during a failed bid to become Ways and Means chairman. Trump received one vote for the speakership back in January on the seventh, eighth and 11th ballots, despite only being nominated on the 11th by Gaetz. House members have been advised that a vote for a new speaker will not take place until next week.
"A speaker of the House need not be a member of Congress," John Fortier, a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told PolitiFact in 2021. "That said, we have never elected a speaker from outside the House. But it is constitutionally permissible." Another Republican House member, Greg Steube of Florida, posted on X, "@realDonaldTrump for Speaker." And Fox News host Sean Hannity told viewers Oct. 3 that "some House Republicans" had "been in contact with and have started an effort to draft" Trump as speaker. Becoming Speaker of the House would return Trump to the Washington, D.C., spotlight and could afford him the opportunity to preside over an impeachment of President Joe Biden, if Republicans sought to oust him from office. Yet doing so may risk further dividing the GOP, even before Trump could be voted in. The rule restricting Republican leadership appointments has been adopted by the House Republican Conference since 2005.
In the first of those 2015 elections, votes were also cast for Republican Senator Rand Paul and then Republican Senator Jeff Sessions. Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth received one vote in the 2021 and 2019 speaker elections, while former Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams also received one vote in 2019. The previous time Trump wanted to visit the Capitol was in January 2021, amid the riot he had started as part of his effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election. It’s not entirely clear if Trump actually intends to travel to the Capitol next week. Spokespeople for Trump and several Capitol Hill offices ignored requests to confirm the reports about his possible visit. The chamber has been leaderless since Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) triggered a no-confidence vote that ended the speakership of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) after just nine months.
There are at least two House Republicans vying for the position, and one of them (or one of their colleagues) is likely to be the next Speaker. The theory that anyone can be elected speaker relies on a seeming omission in the Constitution. Article I states that the House "shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers." Because the clause doesn't expressly state that the speaker must be a member, proponents infer that anyone could be speaker.
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