Speaker fight could overshadow awkward days for Harris after losing to Trump

WASHINGTON — All eyes will be laser-focused on Friday’s speaker vote as Mike Johnson tries to cling to the House gavel, potentially overshadowing what could be two awkward days for Vice President Kamala Harris.

Johnson has already lost the support of fellow Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, meaning he likely cannot afford another GOP defector to keep his speakership. That means other Republicans like Chip Roy of Texas and Victoria Spartz of Indiana — who at press time had not said how they would vote — will enter the House chamber Friday afternoon with plenty of leverage.

Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett, another undecided Republican, told CNN on Thursday that there were more than a dozen GOP members who were yet to commit to supporting Johnson.

To win her vote on the floor, Spartz said this week that the Louisiana Republican must publicly pledge fealty to President-elect Donald Trump’s full agenda.

“We had discussions. But I don’t trust that he’s going to do it. So I think that he publicly needs to say what he’s going to do,” she said on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast. Trump on Monday gave Johnson his “complete and total” endorsement.

For his part, Roy, as of Thursday evening, had not said how he plans to vote — nor, importantly, whether he and other holdouts intend to try forcing Johnson to give into any demands. That was their play when haggling with Kevin McCarthy two years ago before the California Republican eventually secured the coveted speaker’s gavel.

The latest round of House GOP infighting could take the focus off Harris — and also complicate the Jan. 6 process.

As president of the Senate, Harris would be the presiding officer during a joint session of Congress to complete the American presidential election process — short of Trump taking the oath of office on Jan. 20. It is a constitutional duty that would mean she is essentially leading the work to check the final box on her decisive Electoral College loss.

On Friday, her Senate position will also require her to swear in recently elected senators. She had hoped to do that as the president-elect, giving her face time with lawmakers whose votes she would have needed down the road, but voters chose a different course.

Harris has said nothing since losing to Trump about her role on Jan. 6. In fact, she has said very little at all publicly since a Nov. 6 concession speech, going mostly dark after becoming the second Democratic presidential nominee to lose to the former reality television personality.

Even before the Senate had adjourned for a Thanksgiving break, Harris had left for Hawaii for a vacation. She had planned to leave Washington before Christmas for Los Angeles — even before the House sent the Senate a stopgap funding measure to avert a government shutdown — but then decided to stick around, presumably in case her tie-breaking vote was needed. Notably, her office did not take a traveling press pool on either trip.

A number of Democratic lawmakers, prior to their holiday recess, dismissed questions about whether Jan. 6 could prove awkward for Harris, given her loss to Trump, who swept seven battleground states where she had devoted ample campaign time and resources. They predicted a swift session, saying she would professionally manage a count free of any Democratic challenges that could rile up Trump and his Republican allies.

“I’m sure she’ll handle it with professionalism. She’s a consummate professional,” Michigan Sen. Gary Peters said. “And it’s her job. She’ll do it.”

Some Democratic lawmakers said they hadn’t heard of plans for members of their party to object to any states’ Electoral College results. An objection-free session would remove that burden from Harris’ shoulders.

“If you are a defender and student of democracy, you understand that when people win an election, you should acknowledge that. I’m sure she will, even though it’s painfully obvious she was on the other side,” said Senate Judiciary Chair Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the chamber.

‘It is over’

Should the vice president need a guidepost, history provides some examples of similar situations.

“She should follow Al Gore’s example,” Democratic strategist Michael LaRosa said, referring to the former vice president who lost a 2000 nail-biter to Republican George W. Bush. “He honored the rules of the House and Senate. And when one of the members of the House said, ‘I don’t care,’” that her objection to a state’s count was not signed by a sitting senator, as is required, Gore gaveled and responded, in part: “The rules do care.’” (LaRosa was referring to California Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters.)

On Monday, Harris is expected to join Gore and Republican Richard Nixon on the list of vice presidents of the past century who presided over the joint session of Congress to certify their own electoral defeats.

The fourth vice president with a similar fate, Hubert H. Humphrey, did not attend the joint session because he was in Norway for the funeral of United Nations Secretary-General Trygve Lie. On that day, the Senate president pro tempore, Georgia Democrat Richard B. Russell Jr., presided.

Nixon, who lost to Democrat John F. Kennedy in 1960, and Gore, 40 years later, both did their duty.

“This is the first time in 100 years that a candidate for the presidency announced the result of an election in which he was defeated and announced the victory of his opponent,” Nixon said at the joint session, referring back to Vice President John C. Breckinridge losing to Abraham Lincoln. “I do not think we could have a more striking example of the stability of our constitutional system and of the proud tradition of the American people of developing, respecting and honoring institutions of self-government.”

When George W. Bush prevailed over Gore following a recount in Florida in 2000, several House Democrats sought to challenge the outcome from the floor — though no senators joined in their objections, meaning it was Gore’s responsibility to decline their motions.

During that debate, as CQ reported at the time, Democratic Rep. Alcee L. Hastings said to Gore, “We did all we could.”

To which a smiling Gore responded: “The chair thanks the gentleman from Florida.”

Several vice presidents have also presided over their ticket’s defeat, most famously Trump’s first vice president, Mike Pence, whom rioters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, threatened to lynch.

Outgoing President Joe Biden was in the awkward position as Barack Obama’s vice president in January 2017 of overseeing the Electoral College count of Trump’s first presidential victory. Biden had opted that cycle against running for the Democratic presidential nomination, which was won by Hillary Clinton.

“It is over,” Biden said after an unsuccessful objection by Washington Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal over awarding Georgia’s 16 electoral votes to Trump. House and Senate Republicans, clustered on the left side of the chamber, roared their approval, stood and applauded, Roll Call reported at the time.

Texas Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee rose to object on several occasions, but her microphone was shut off at times, seemingly by Republicans who controlled the chamber. At other points, Biden, who long has called himself an institutionalist, refused to let her explain her objections in keeping with the rules for the quadrennial session.

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