At noon, Eastern, the 119th session of Congress begins.

The first question before the newly elected Congress is going to be, will Mike Johnson be the Speaker

of the House?

How much confidence do you have that you will have the necessary votes to retain the gavel?

We're going to get this done.

Look, I'm humbled and honored to have President Trump's endorsement for the role again, as well as the endorsement of leaders across the conservative spectrum and the Republican Party, all of my colleagues that are standing with us, and we will get this done. We live in very serious times. We cannot afford any palace drama here.

Well, he's super right about living in very serious times.

Unfortunately, for Speaker Johnson, tomorrow is almost bound to be filled with palace drama.

And that drama will be televised.

Now, you'll note that most of the year, only the cameras that are run by the house itself

are allowed into the House

chamber, which is why no matter how dramatic the issue being discussed, footage of Congress

almost always looks like this. However, tomorrow, C-SPAN will be allowed to bring its own cameras

into the chamber to film however it likes. You might remember when it took Republican

Congressman Kevin McCarthy 15 votes to win the Speaker's gaveled in 2023. I remember that night

well, that week well, but you saw a lot of images like this. C-SPAN gave us live footage of

representatives all over the House floor, negotiating, bickering, taking what would normally

happen off-camera

and letting the world see.

That's one reason why tomorrow might be a bit more dramatic than Speaker Johnson would like

it to be.

But there's another reason, and it's this.

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