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Trump suffers rare defeat with House Republicans
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◎ Multiple-sources
President Trump shakes hands with Speaker Mike Johnson on March 16 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Annabelle Gordon/AFP via Getty Images The House GOP revolt on FISA Friday wasn't a setback for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), it was a rare defeat for President Trump with his own party.
Key facts
- That failure left GOP leaders with no choice but to fall back on a 10-day extension of the spy powers program, their last-resort option
- They brought in CIA Director John Ratcliffe to address Republicans at their weekly meeting Tuesday, held numerous briefings at the White House solely for Republican holdouts, and even set up
- Charging ahead on a clean extension of Section 702 was a White House call, but some of Trump's closest allies refused to budge on long-held beliefs around the national security tool
- Johnson will have to find a way to unite his fractured conference, and make sure the White House and Senate stay on board, in the next 12 days
Summary
President Trump shakes hands with Speaker Mike Johnson on March 16 in Washington, D.C. Charging ahead on a clean extension of Section 702 was a White House call, but some of Trump's closest allies refused to budge on long-held beliefs around the national security tool. More than two dozen Republicans voted down two separate procedural votes early Friday morning, once unheard of for members in the majority, but now an increasingly common tactic. That failure left GOP leaders with no choice but to fall back on a 10-day extension of the spy powers program, their last-resort option. After explicitly pushing for a clean extension, GOP leaders and the White House softened their stance and agreed to entertain changes to appease conservatives.
"This is not an accurate characterization of WH involvement at all. Johnson will have to find a way to unite his fractured conference, and make sure the White House and Senate stay on board, in the next 12 days.