The Campaign Moment: How Mike Johnson won the speaker fight

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🗓️ 3 January 2025

⏱️ 26 minutes

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Summary

On Friday, Republicans once again selected Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) to be speaker of the House — but not before there was a little bit of drama.

Earlier this week, President-elect Donald Trump took to social media to link the New Year’s Day vehicular attack in New Orleans to weak border policies, even though the attacker was an American citizen born in Texas. In the hours following, the message became a popular Republican talking point.

Reporters Marianna Sotomayor, Marianne LeVine and Leigh Ann Caldwell join host Aaron Blake to discuss how Johnson eked out a victory in the speaker fight, and why the New Orleans attack became so quickly politicized.

Today’s show was produced by Laura Benshoff. It was edited by Reena Flores and Rachen Van Dongen and mixed by Sam Bair.

Subscribe to Aaron’s newsletter, The Campaign Moment, here.

Subscribe to The Washington Post here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So did you guys do anything fun for New Year's?
0:04.9	I hosted a little party with some friends.
0:07.2	That sounds fun.
0:08.1	Yeah, it was fun.
0:09.2	Marianne?
0:10.3	I was up in New York and saw some friends from college.
0:13.3	We went out to dinner and then went back and played board games at my friend's apartment.
0:17.3	You weren't wearing a diaper in Times Square, were you?
0:19.6	No, I was not. I decided
0:22.2	to opt out of that. Though a woman at the party I was at did, in fact, go to the ball drop a couple
0:28.8	years ago. And she did not wear a diaper, but she did have to go to the bathroom pretty late
0:34.7	into the night. And she said that when she left where she was standing to go to some nearby bar,
0:40.3	she came back and apparently saw the Jonas Brothers and they offered to give her a ride home
0:46.0	to New Jersey, which is a pretty amazing story.
0:49.1	And I think she did, in fact, take them up on the ride.
0:51.6	Teenage Marianna is dying right now.
0:53.9	Yeah, I mean, I'm still now. It's like a dream comes
0:55.4	through. It's fine. Like 33-year-old Marianne is very excited about that idea. Happy New Year and
1:06.0	welcome to the campaign moment. It's Friday, January 3rd. I'm Aaron Blake, senior political reporter and author of
1:12.2	the Campaign Moment newsletter. Today, I'm joined by Marianne, a national political reporter here at the
1:18.1	Post. Hey, Marianne. Hey, Erin. Thanks for having me. And we're also joined today by Mariana Sotomayor,
1:23.6	a congressional reporter covering the House of Representatives for the Post. Hi.
	...

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