Trump gets warm welcome from House Republicans in 1st stop back in Washington

(WASHINGTON) — Speaker Mike Johnson and top House Republicans took a victory lap as they returned to Washington on Tuesday on the heels of last week’s election, saying they are ready on Day 1 to work on President-elect Donald Trump’s agenda.

“It is a beautiful morning and it is a new day in America,” Johnson said from the Capitol steps surrounded by House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Whip Tom Emmer and National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Rep. Richard Hudson.

Lawmakers are back for a lame-duck session that will require them to pass another government funding measure before a shutdown deadline of Dec. 20 and passing the annual defense bill, among other legislative priorities.

All eyes are also on Trump’s transition and what lies ahead with a potential Republican “trifecta” in the nation’s capital. Republicans won the White House and the Senate and are three seats away from clinching the House, according to ABC News projections, though House control has not yet been called.

Johnson said they were continuing to watch outstanding races, but expressed confidence that the chamber would remain in GOP control.

Republican leadership said their top priorities come January will be to lower costs, secure the border and project strength on the world stage in coordination with Trump.

“Last week, the American people delivered a mandate down to Washington that they want to fix the problems that have been plaguing families all across this country for the last three and a half years,” Scalise said.

Johnson argued they are better equipped to act now than they were in 2016, when Republicans similarly controlled the White House and Congress after Trump’s victory.

“We are prepared this time as we wind down the 118th Congress,” Johnson said. “We’ll be ready to take the ball and run in the 119th Congress.”

Though when asked about Trump’s pledge to eliminate the Department of Education, Johnson said he wasn’t ready to get into specifics of plans to reform individual departments or agencies.

Trump’s picks for his administration may cut into any GOP majority in the House and Senate. Sen. Marco Rubio is being considered for secretary of state, sources told ABC News. Rep. Elise Stefanik has been tapped for United Nations ambassador. Rep Mike Waltz has also been asked to be national security adviser, ABC News reported.

Johnson said he doesn’t anticipate more members leaving to join Trump’s team and that “every vote will count” in the new Congress.

“President Trump and I have talked about this, multiple times a day for the last several days,” Johnson said. “We have an embarrassment of riches. We have a really talented Republican Congress … Many of them can serve in a important positions in the new administration. But President Trump fully understands, appreciates the math here and it’s just a numbers game.”

Johnson also confirmed reports that he is planning to spend the weekend at Mar-a-Lago with Trump to discuss Trump’s cabinet and the upcoming House agenda.

The speaker also said Trump expressed interest in coming to speak to Republicans on Capitol Hill on Wednesday when he is in Washington to meet with President Joe Biden.

“That would be a great meeting and moment for us all,” Johnson said. “There’s a lot of excitement, a lot of energy here. We’re really grateful for President Trump leaving it all on the field to get reelected.”

The speaker declined to back anyone in the Senate leadership race, saying all the candidates are his “favorite.” Senate Republicans are set to vote Wednesday, with three major contenders vying for the position: Sen. John Thune, Sen. John Cornyn and Sen. Rick Scott.

Trump has not endorsed a candidate, but made demands that whoever is chosen support recess appointments for federal vacancies.

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(WASHNIGTON) — Former Republican Rep. Liz Cheney is firing back at Donald Trump after the former president darkly suggested Cheney be put in the line of fire as he criticized her as a “war hawk.”

“This is how dictators destroy free nations. They threaten those who speak against them with death,” Cheney posted Friday on X. “We cannot entrust our country and our freedom to a petty, vindictive, cruel, unstable man who wants to be a tyrant.”

Trump attacked Cheney at an event with Tucker Carlson in battleground Arizona on Thursday night.

“She’s a radical war hawk,” Trump said of the former Wyoming congresswoman as he went after her and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney.

“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, okay?” Trump said. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

Trump continued, “You know, they’re all war hawks when they’re sitting in Washington in a nice building saying, ‘Oh, gee, well, let’s send a — let’s send 10,000 troops right into the mouth of the enemy.'”

The Harris campaign called Trump saying “nine barrels” a reference to a traditional nine-gun “firing squad.”

Cheney, a Republican but a vocal critic of Trump over his behavior after the 2020 election and on Jan. 6, 2021, has endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 election.

While campaigning alongside Harris, Cheney cast Trump as a danger to democracy and the Constitution.

“We see it on a daily basis, somebody who was willing to use violence in order to attempt to seize power, to stay in power, someone who represents unrecoverable catastrophe, frankly, in my view, and we have to do everything possible to ensure that he’s not reelected,” Cheney told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl on ABC’s “This Week” earlier this fall after publicly backing Harris.

Trump’s remarks against Cheney are the latest in a string of increasingly dark and violent campaign rhetoric.

The former president doubled down on his “enemy from within” language after he previously suggested Democrats are more of a threat to the U.S. than top foreign adversaries such as China and Russia when it comes to the 2024 election.

“We do have an enemy from within,” he told Carlson on Thursday. “We have some very bad people, and those people are also very dangerous. They would like to take down our country. They’d like to have our country be a nice communist country or a fascist in any way they can. And we have to be careful of that.”

Harris campaign senior adviser Ian Sams responded to Trump’s comments during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday, during which he called the former president “all-consumed by his grievances.”

“I mean, think about the contrast between these two candidates,” Sams said. “You have Donald Trump who is talking about sending a prominent Republican to the firing squad, and you have Vice President Harris talking about sending one to her Cabinet. This is the difference in this race.”

Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s spokesperson, claimed on Friday Trump’s words were being taken out of context.

“President Trump was CLEARLY explaining that warmongers like Liz Cheney are very quick to start wars and send other Americans to fight them, rather than go into combat themselves,” Leavitt wrote on X.

ABC News’ Lalee Ibssa, Soorin Kim, Kelsey Walsh and Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.

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(GEORGIA) — One day after a Georgia judge invalidated the state’s controversial “hand count” rule, a separate judge Wednesday evening invalidated even more rules that were passed by the Republican-led state election board, declaring them “unlawful and void.”

Fulton County Judge Thomas Cox ruled after an hours-long hearing to invalidate seven rules total, including the hand count rule, finding in part that the board did not have the authority to enact them.

Cox made clear that the State of Georgia and the State Election Board “are hereby DIRECTED TO IMMEDIATELY REMOVE THESE RULES FROM THEIR ROLES AND OFFICIAL REPORTING” and to “IMMEDIATELY INFORM ALL STATE AND LOCAL ELECTION OFFICIALS THAT THESE RULES ARE VOID AND ARE NOT TO BE FOLLOWED,” in his decision.

The rules now invalidated include a rule calling county officials to certify election results after “reasonable inquiry.”

Cox wrote in his order that rule “adds an additional and undefined step into the certification process” and that it is “inconsistent with and unsupported” by state law.

He also invalidated a rule that “requires that a person delivering an absentee ballot provide a signature and photo ID at the time the absentee ballot is delivered.”

The judge said in his ruling that state provisions don’t require that.

“The SEB thus has no authority to require such presentment as a condition of accepting and counting an otherwise properly delivered ballot,” Cox wrote.

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