The Daily Signal - Speaker Johnson in Question, Trump Fights Spending Bill, Fani Willis Disqualified | Dec. 19

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Starting point is 00:00:25 We'd love to talk, business. Will the Speaker of the House get ousted again? I'm Elizabeth Mitchell, and this is the Daily Signal, top news in 10, for Thursday, December 19th. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he supports the newly released American Relief Act, which would keep the government funded, fund farmers, and provide relief to those harmed by the hurricanes. The Daily Signal's executive editor, Rob Blewey, joins us to discuss. Thanks so much. Thanks, Elizabeth.

Starting point is 00:01:07 What happened here? Oh my goodness. This was a wild 24 hours on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. That's for sure. Trump essentially said that he wants certain things in this bill and to take all of those Democrat priorities out. It means that Mike Johnson is probably going to need to rely on Republican votes to get this across the finish line. Remember, the government runs out of funding at midnight on Friday. So there is, time is certainly of the essence to get this done. Absolutely. What's in this new bill? Yeah, so there are a few key things. Number one, it funds the government through March, which gives Trump an opportunity to use his first couple of months in office to figure out what the rest of the fiscal year looks like. Secondly, there is relief for farmers and there is disaster relief aid. Those were two things that Republicans wanted to see. Those are important constituencies. And those are also promises they made, either on the campaign trail or in Congress. And then finally, this new addition is extending the debt limit out for two years. This was something that really wasn't. on the radar of many Republicans. They expected to deal with this in 2025, but not this early. Trump wanted that out of the equation so Democrats couldn't use that as leverage on some of his other issues. Now that we have a much shorter, smaller spending bill, what do you expect to happen going forward? Well, it's a good question. It's really anyone's guess. They still need to

Starting point is 00:02:27 get this passed, obviously. They'll need the support of the House and the Senate and then for President Biden to sign it so that the government doesn't shut down. Now, a shutdown wouldn't be catastrophic per se, given that we're in a period of time when a lot of government workers probably are taking time off for the holidays. Yet, we know that the media tends to blame Republicans for these things. And so I think in the short term, it'll probably get done because I don't think there's anybody in Washington who wants to spend the Christmas holidays worrying about this. But what it means is that Republicans need to get to work and figure out what they're going to do to fund the government through September when this runs out in March.

Starting point is 00:03:03 Absolutely. Thank you so much. Thank you. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance weighed in on the spending bill fight via a joint statement Wednesday afternoon. The incoming president and vice president threw Congress a curveball by demanding the debt ceiling, the suspension of which ends January 1st, 2025, is also addressed in the continuing resolution. The daily signals Bradley Devlin joins to discuss. Bradley, what should we make of this? Yeah, it's a really interesting statement. Trump and Vance say increasing the debt ceiling is not great. but we'd rather do it on Biden's watch. If Democrats won't cooperate on the debt ceiling now,

Starting point is 00:03:42 what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let's have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn't give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want. Trump said that he wants a temporary funding bill without Democrat giveaways combined

Starting point is 00:03:58 with an increase in the debt ceiling. And the reason that he's saying this is because Trump notices or has recognized that this package, as it currently stands, you know, 1,500 pages with $100 billion in extra spending, much more than $100 billion in extra spending, was not something that was ever going to make it through the House of Representatives. And it's kind of on Johnson to like this package even be released to the conference.

Starting point is 00:04:26 Trump says that, you know, basically Democrats are playing political brinksmanship right after the American people voted against them. And so they're trying to punish the American people for this. And Johnson should have just called that what it is, that Democrats are being obstructionists and that the House is going to go forward and pass something that they can get through with only Republican votes. And that Democrats are going to have to giddy up and get along, or they're going to be the ones caught playing shutdown politics. I think Trump thinks that the Republicans can win a shutdown fight, at least the optics of a shutdown fight. I'm not particularly sure of that.

Starting point is 00:05:05 But I definitely think it's a better strategy than what Johnson has managed to do, which is kind of throw the conference into chaos because the more Republicans are in chaos, the more it looks like Democrats have their ducks in a row, even though this is very clearly a ploy to get their priorities protected before they lose all power for two years. Definitely. Trump told Fox News Digital that Johnson will easily remain speaker for the next Congress if he acts decisively and tough and eliminates all of the trash. being set by Democrats in the spending package. Bradley, what do you foresee Mike Johnson's future in Congress being? Yeah, it's really difficult. There's a rift emerging between, oh, it's been there for a while, but now it's burst out into the open between Chip Roy and President Donald Trump. And Johnson, if he's going to remain speaker,

Starting point is 00:05:55 needs to do what President Trump said. He needs to act decisively. He needs to stop falling into these Democratic traps. But with respect to this rift between Chip Roy, and Donald Trump opening up, I mean, Johnson really needs Chip Roy to be that olive branch to the House Freedom Caucus and its members. That is a big part of Johnson's member management, especially with how slim the House majority is going to be going into the next Congress. And he needs to find some way to at least move these disagreements within the House Republican conference. back behind closed doors rather than have them spilling out into the open. I think Trump doesn't

Starting point is 00:06:41 always necessarily help Johnson in that respect, but I think this is kind of the problem is that as soon as something happens with the continuing resolution, a lot of Republican firebrands and conservatives who have real conservative principles. Don't get me wrong, Chip Roy is one of the better members of Congress for protecting conservatives interests. They get that out there in front of the camera when maybe the more politically savvy thing to do would say, okay, here's this plan. The conference has talked about it. This is a non-starter. And Johnson needs to go back to Democrats and say, all this crap that you said we could totally get through the House. Yeah, I mean, we're not going to be able to do that. So we're going to pass a clean continuing resolution, just like you guys have requested a zillion

Starting point is 00:07:27 times before. And if Democrats don't want to go for that, I think, you know, you say we're going to protect farmers, and we're going to provide the disaster relief funding. And we already have your Biden administration on record refusing to help different Trump supporters with hurricane relief. And so now we're going to tie that to the government spending fight and say, not only did they try to withhold relief on the ground after Helena and Milton, but they won't help these communities rebuild because they want to punish the American people for voting against them in November. I think that would be an effective line of attack. I think that's what they should have done. nevertheless, Johnson's in a very, very sticky situation.

Starting point is 00:08:07 Okay, thank you so much. A Georgia Appeals Court on Thursday disqualified Fawney Willis, the scandal-plagued prosecutor leading a racketeering case against Donald Trump and his 2020 campaign supporters. The appeals court left the criminal charges in Georgia stemming from the 2020 presidential election in place, but booted Willis, the Fulton County District Attorney and determined that a new prosecutor needs to be appointed for the case. The court ruled that we cannot conclude that the record also supports the imposition of the extreme sanction of dismissal of the indictment. Willis, who had appointed Nathan Wade as a special prosecutor in the Trump case, later admitted to having an affair with him.

Starting point is 00:08:47 The appeals court ruled that the significant appearance of impropriety could taint the case in the eyes of the public. Here's Trump talking about the relationship. I was indicted by Fannie in Georgia, Fannie. How did that work out? And her lover, Nathan Wade. And they hired him for almost a million dollars because of his great, great experience. Of course, he didn't have any experience. He had experience in something else.

Starting point is 00:09:16 You know that. A lot of it's right. And at that, I'm quite sure he was very good based on the fact that she called him 2,000 times. I didn't know the gentleman. I didn't know him. Oh, you have 2,000 phone calls, 3,500 text messages. How is it possible? Willis and Wade took two vacations together, prompting questions about whether Willis

Starting point is 00:09:42 personally gained from hiring Wade. Wade said the Fulton County, DA, reimbursed him with cash for the vacations. The court ruled, while we recognize that an appearance of impropriety generally is not enough to support disqualification, there is the rare case in which disqualification is mandated and no other remedy will suffice to restore public confidence in the integrity of these proceedings. Representative Byron Donalds of Florida quickly weighed in on X, saying, this is a huge win over Democrat lawfare. This is a huge win for justice in America.

Starting point is 00:10:13 This is a huge win for President Trump. Now let's hit our newsflash for the day. The alleged murderer of United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson waived his right to an extradition hearing. Luigi Mangione was flown from Pennsylvania to New York on Thursday afternoon to face federal charges. The host of Your World with Neil Cavuto is leaving Fox News after almost 30 years. Fox News Network said in a statement, Neil Cavuto's illustrious career has been a master class in journalism, and we're extremely proud of his incredible 28-year run with Fox News Media.

Starting point is 00:10:51 His programs have defined business news and set the standard for an entire industry. We wish him a heartfelt farewell and all the best on his next chapter. ABC, CBS, and NBC, as well as other legacy media outlets have given Trump cabinet picks overwhelmingly negative coverage. Though polls show the American people support Trump's picks, ABC, CBS, and NBC's coverage of Trump nominees have had a 96% negative tilt on evening news shows. That's all for today's episode. Thank you so much for listening to Top News Intent. Don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on our new episodes of Top News In 10. or our weekend deep dive interviews.

Starting point is 00:11:36 Today's episode was edited by Tyler O'Neill and produced by Joseph Von Spakovsky and John Pop. Thank you so much for listening. Have a wonderful evening and we're back with you tomorrow at 5 p.m.

The Daily Signal - Speaker Johnson in Question, Trump Fights Spending Bill, Fani Willis Disqualified | Dec. 19

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