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Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy posted a picture with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Friday, hours after House Speaker Mike Johnson was re-elected on the first vote – starkly different from McCarthy’s election in 2023.

“Always great spending time with President Trump tonight,” McCarthy posted alongside Trump, who gave a thumbs up.

In another post with the same photo over music, McCarthy wrote, “Catching up with President Trump today. 17 days to go.”

McCarthy was elected speaker after 15 votes and ultimately ousted after former Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz offered a motion to vacate the chair on the House floor, which prevailed.

Johnson succeeded McCarthy about three weeks after McCarthy was ousted. Ahead of Friday’s vote, Johnson earned Trump’s endorsement.

President-elect Donald Trump announced Friday that Morgan Ortagus would serve as “Deputy Special Presidential Envoy for Middle East Peace.”

“Early on Morgan fought me for three years, but hopefully has learned her lesson,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “These things usually don’t work out, but she has strong Republican support, and I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing it for them. Let’s see what happens. She will hopefully be an asset to Steve, a great leader and talent, as we seek to bring calm and prosperity to a very troubled region. I expect great results, and soon!”

The president-elect, in his post, also detailed Ortagus’ experience as an active US Navy Reserve Intelligence Officer and as spokesperson at the Department of State.

Trump named his longtime friend Steve Witkoff as special envoy to the Middle East last year.

Some House Republicans and Democrats are warning Speaker Mike Johnson of the challenges ahead in a tight 119th Congress where the GOP has one of the narrowest House majorities in nearly 100 years.

Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, who had declined to say if she would back Johnson before ultimately voting for him Friday, said if he “does everything right” he can stay speaker.

Boebert said she would prefer if it only required one member to threaten to oust Johnson. The House voted to adopt a rules package earlier today that allows for a 9-member motion to vacate the speakership.

“If there’s enough compromise that is damaging to the agenda, there very well could be a motion to vacate,” Boebert said. “Do I have a plan to do that? I’m sure that’s your next question. No, but I haven’t seen what we’re doing at this time either. I hope Mike Johnson has the most successful speakership that we’ve seen.”

Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal warned that Johnson may have a tougher time actually governing with his narrow margin because “if you can’t get a majority, you’ve gotta work with Democrats.”

“The mood is not to bail him out this time around, especially after he screwed us on the last agreement that we made and he backed away from it,” she said, a reference to the bipartisan bill to fund the federal government that was scrapped in December after President-elect Donald Trump’s intervention.

GOP Rep. Troy Nehls emphasized Trump’s role in helping Johnson secure the speakership as well as House Republicans winning the majority in the first place.

“Trump gave us the gavel,” Nehls said. “I think Mike Johnson and the House of Representatives, we probably owe Donald Trump.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson says he has not seen a letter signed by Rep. Chip Roy and other detractors, and that he can’t comment on their demands.

“I haven’t seen it. I can’t comment on it,” he said.

Roy was joined in the letter by 10 other House Republicans — Reps. Andy Harris, Scott Perry, Andy Biggs, Clay Higgins, Michael Cloud, Andy Ogles, Eli Crane, Eric Burlison, Ralph Norman and Andrew Clyde — who resisted Johnson’s return to the speakership but ultimately backed him on the first ballot Friday.

In the letter, the lawmakers demanded that Johnson make several commitments to “prove he will not fail to enact President Trump’s bold agenda.”

These demands included legislation banning member stock trading, rolling back Biden-Harris environmental policies, and cutting spending.

Johnson has insisted he did not cut any deals in order to secure the gavel.

Mike Johnson will keep his job as House speaker after a dramatic vote on Friday as the 119th Congress prepares to get to work.

He won in the first round — but only after flipping two GOP opponents as the vote was held open to give Republicans more time to secure support for Johnson, who was backed by President-elect Donald Trump.

Now that he is elected, Johnson faces a tough legislating challenge with the narrowest House majority in nearly 100 years.

However, in a key victory for Johnson, the House made it harder to oust a speaker. Included as part of the sweeping package was a procedural change that will require a minimum of nine GOP lawmakers to force a vote to oust a speaker. Previously, it only required one member to force a vote.

House speaker vote:

• Holdouts: Three GOP lawmakers did not vote initially for Johnson: Reps. Thomas Massie, Ralph Norman and Keith Self. At least seven Republicans also initially skipped their turn to vote, but later all backed Johnson. With all members voting, Johnson could only afford a single GOP defection.
• Flipping votes: The first vote was held open for an extended period of time as the GOP leadership tried to buy more time to talk to holdouts. Norman and Self eventually flipped to support of Johnson. Norman said he changed his mind after talking to the speaker and Trump, who called both Norman and Self, multiple sources said. Self said he switched his vote after Johnson agreed to let GOP hardliners help negotiate a major upcoming bill.
• Other skeptics: A group of House Republicans who had been skeptical of Johnson — but ultimately voted for him — released a letter outlining a list of demands. They called on Johnson to add session days to the House calendar, ensure that any reconciliation package includes significant spending cuts, and stop putting bills on the floor that rely heavily on Democratic support.
• Speaker Mike Johnson, after he was elected, said it is “the great honor of his life” to serve the House. He also laid out his priorities for the new Congress — with the top issue being border security. Johnson said he would “put the interest of Americans first” and tackle other Republican agenda items like inflation and crime.
• Trump congratulated Johnson in a post on Truth Social. He said Johnson received an “unprecedented Vote of Confidence in Congress” and that that he will be “a Great Speaker.”
• Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said his party would work with Republicans to find common ground, but drew hard lines at cutting programs like Social Security and Medicaid. He also promised to protect reproductive rights and “push back against far right extremism.” The minority leader received a standing ovation when he acknowledged Trump won the election, and then added, “There are no election deniers on our side of aisle.”
• Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi received cheers from her caucus when she stood up to cast her vote for Jeffries. She is back in the Capitol, weeks after undergoing surgery for a broken hip.

@cnnMike Johnson was elected Speaker of the House after flipping two votes from the nine Republicans who initially refused to support him. Johnson will face a big challenge in Congress with the narrowest House majority in nearly 100 years. CNN’s Jake Tapper breaks down the vote.

♬ original sound – CNN

In the Senate:

• Vice President Kamala Harris swore in senators for the new Congress. Notably, Sen. Chuck Grassley was sworn in as President Pro Tempore of the Senate, putting the 91-year-old 3rd in the presidential line of succession.
• Sen. John Thune, the new Senate Majority Leader, committed to protecting the legislative filibuster during his opening remarks at the beginning of the new Congress. President-elect Donald Trump had floated getting rid of the key rule during his first term.
• Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer congratulated Thune, who he called “a good and decent American,” on his elevation to Majority Leader, and gave him advice: focus on bipartisanship.

@cnnMike Johnson was elected Speaker of the House after flipping two votes from the nine Republicans who initially refused to support him. Johnson will face a big challenge in Congress with the narrowest House majority in nearly 100 years. CNN’s Jake Tapper breaks down the vote.

♬ original sound – CNN

House Republicans will meet this weekend to flesh out their legislative priorities, planning for an ambitious agenda now that the GOP controls both chambers of Congress and the White House.

The new Congress was sworn in Friday, and Speaker Mike Johnson was re-elected despite a very slim majority.

The lawmakers will debate how to proceed on budget reconciliation, an expedited process for considering bills that would allow the party to push through their agenda without Democratic support.

The House Republicans are expected to meet at Fort McNair in Washington, DC, on Saturday, and elected leadership is set to meet in Baltimore on Sunday.

The House voted to make it harder to oust a speaker on Friday – another victory for Johnson after he retained the gavel in a nail-biter of a vote earlier in the day.

The chamber voted to adopt a new rules package for the 119th Congress – a lengthy document that covers a wide array of rules and regulations.

Included as part of the sweeping package is a procedural change that will require a minimum of nine GOP lawmakers to force a vote to oust a speaker. Previously, it only required one member to force a vote. That one-member threshold is what led to the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy when former GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz forced a vote on his removal.

The House voted 215 to 209 to approve the overall rules package.

House Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern, the ranking member on the Rules Committee, criticized two additional provisions in the rules package.

One is that the speaker can only entertain a motion to suspend the rules on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday – an apparent concession to the initial GOP holdouts in the speaker’s vote.

House GOP leadership has sometimes brought bills – including major spending legislation – to the floor under suspension as a way of bypassing the House Rules committee, which Rep. Ralph Norman – one of the initial defectors who later flipped – sits on, lessening the panel’s power. This would limit leadership’s ability to do that.

McGovern said Republicans “worked out another backroom deal,” and argued that the change could paralyze the House’s ability to move swiftly in the event of a major emergency, like a national disaster or terror attack. The congressman also said Republicans moved to “change words like child to son or daughter in our ethics rules” – with McGovern calling it “weird,” and saying, “they’re obsessed with this stuff.”

Sens. Angela Alsobrooks of Maryland and Lisa Blunt Rochester of Delaware became the third and fourth Black Democratic senators in the current Congress on Friday when Vice President Kamala Harris swore them in on Friday.

There have only been 14 Black senators to serve in the US Senate. From slavery and Jim Crow laws to suppression of minority voters, Black political candidates have long faced stumbling blocks. Hiram Revels, the first Black US senator, took office in the late 1800s as part of a wave of African American lawmakers during the Reconstruction era, but he was elected by the Mississippi legislature, not the state’s voters.

Also on Friday, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott became the longest-serving Black US senator. He is the sole Black Republican in the Senate.

Scott will serve as the first Black chairman of a Senate standing committee, leading the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, where he previously served as the ranking Republican member when Democrats held control of the chamber in the previous session.

Republican Rep. Ralph Norman, who initially voted against Mike Johnson before changing his vote, said the speaker had signaled in negotiations that he would allow more GOP voices at the table under his leadership this Congress.

Asked by CNN’s Manu Raju if Johnson had made any commitments that made him change his mind, Norman said the speaker promised “more conservatives will be at the table on negotiations.”

“Let’s put people like Chip Roy, and I’m just using him as an example, like other people who are true…know how to negotiate and we’ll fight and we’ll put things to the American people, much like what the DOGE commission intend to do,” he said, a reference to the newly created department aimed at cutting government spending led by Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk.

Norman said he trusted that Johnson would “give us that platform,” and that the speaker had convinced both him and Rep. Keith Self, another Republican who voted against Johnson at first, to give him a chance.

“He knew if it went to a second ballot it was going to get tougher,” Norman said.

Asked what Donald Trump had said when they talked on the phone, Norman said the president-elect was “in the middle of a golf game” and brought up how the South Carolina Republican had voted for Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley in the primary.

“I said, Yes sir, I did. We’re with you now and I said we will be with Mike Johnson,” Norman told reporters he responded to Trump, adding that he told him the president-elect would have to help House Republicans push his agenda.

Norman said Trump had told him that Johnson was the only one who had the “likeability” to be speaker.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is insisting that he did not cut deals with Reps. Ralph Norman and Keith Self to get over the finish line during today’s speaker vote.

“There were no deals cut,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju. “I took suggestions and requests from all members on process reforms and changes, which I was already committed to. We made no deals to anyone, no quid pro quo to anybody on any position, or anything at all. Through the entire — I haven’t done that in 14 months, and I was not about to start today. And I think that’s important, because there needs to be transparency. Every member needs to be on a level playing field, and we maintained that today and I’m really proud of it.”

Johnson said there would be a “new paradigm” and noted plans to “decentralize the speaker’s office and power.”

“We’re going to have unified government with Republican control of the House, the Senate and the White House, so very different environment — 60% of the House Republicans have never served in a unified government situation. So, I had explained to them how the processes are different and the procedures, and that we are in, effectively, a law-making exercise every single day,” he said.

Johnson said he had to “convince them that it will be a member-driven process.”

Johnson acknowledged that President-elect Donald Trump’s support was very important. He argued Trump is “the most powerful president, certainly of the modern era, maybe in all of American history” and said the two work “very well together.”

South Carolina Rep. Ralph Norman, one of the key Republican holdouts who eventually switched his vote to support Speaker Mike Johnson, said he didn’t get anything for throwing his support behind the Louisiana lawmaker.

“I didn’t get anything personally. Other than a commitment that things are going to change,” he said. “There will be a drastic change from the next 14 months.”

Norman said the hour delay in the vote was worth it: “Absolutely. I would do it all over again.”

He said his mind was eventually changed after talking with President-elect Donald Trump and Johnson, and assurances that things would change.

“We had a good discussion. We had a talk with President Trump when we got in there. I never know how this stuff is going to come out, I don’t know how people are going to vote, we got together, Mike gave us his assurances, he is going to fight for the things we think are important for the country,” Norman said.

Trump shored up support from the fairway: The president-elect, who publicly backed Johnson earlier this week, also talked to other key GOP holdouts before the vote was gaveled and the speaker emerged victorious. CNN’s Manu Raju reported Friday that Trump was in the middle of his golf game when he made calls for Johnson.

This post has been updated with more details on Trump’s calls to lawmakers.

Oklahoma GOP Rep. Tom Cole said the drama that unfolded on Capitol Hill on Friday over electing a speaker demonstrates that it’s going to be difficult to manage the House this Congress but said the positive outcome is also a “hopeful start.”

“It’s going to be a challenging Congress and that’s not something new,” Cole said. “But the fact is it all got done on one ballot and that’s a lot better than 15, which is what it took last time. So, I’ll take that and I’m pleased.”

Asked if he was worried critics of House Speaker Mike Johnson, who was reelected Friday, might turn on him over the course of the next two years, he said, “I worry about everything everyday. That’s just the nature of the business, but I thought this was a very hopeful start and it went very well.”

Shortly after the House chose a new speaker, a New York judge upheld Donald Trump’s conviction in the hush-money case, rejecting the president-elect’s effort to throw out the jury’s verdict because of his re-election in November.

New York Judge Juan Merchan set the sentencing for January 10, 2025 and said Trump can appear virtually or in person.

However, in his ruling Merchan said Trump will face no legal penalties, indicating the case is essentially over.

Trump was found guilty by a jury in May on 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Trump lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. They previously indicated they would appeal any effort to sentence him prior to Inauguration Day on January 20.

A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg declined to comment.

The headine and the post have been updated with additional details from the ruling.

Rep. Andy Biggs said Friday that President-elect Donald Trump’s endorsement of Mike Johnson was important in the House speaker’s reelection.

When asked if he believes Johnson would’ve survived without Trump’s endorsement, Biggs said, “No. I think it was important.”

Biggs also said he still has concerns about Johnson leading the conference but added that Trump’s endorsement was taken into consideration.

“I have concerns, but President Trump said he wanted to work with Johnson, and basically — basically, that we took that into account,” Biggs said leaving the House floor.

Additionally, Biggs said Johnson indicated “he’s going to work on various aspects of processes that we think need to be take place.”

GOP Rep. Dusty Johnson denied on Friday that Republicans who initially resisted backing Mike Johnson for speaker received any specific commitments from him.

“There wasn’t any particular deal or commitment. Nobody got anything other than Mike Johnson, who was willing to look people in the eye and tell them that we will have a more inclusive, collaborative and conservative agenda over the course of the next two years,” he told CNN’s Manu Raju.

The South Dakota Republican said he didn’t want to talk about “specific asks or parts of the negotiation,” between the holdouts and leadership.

“When you get the right people in the room and they want to get to yes, you absolutely can get to yes,” he said.

He wouldn’t talk about “specific actions” by President-elect Donald Trump, whom CNN has reported called some last-minute holdouts before they ultimately backed the speaker.

“Nobody’s got the kind of capital that President Trump does. He is clearly the captain of the football team,” he said.

Rep. Keith Self, who initially cast his ballot for Florida Rep. Byron Donalds before changing his vote to House Speaker Mike Johnson, told CNN that he and Donald Trump spoke multiple times today and that they had a “lively discussion” about advancing the president-elect’s agenda.

Self, who declined to provide details about the talks with Trump, said he decided to vote for Johnson because he got a commitment that GOP hardliners would be part of a major bill that Republicans want to advance using the budget process to enact aspects of the Trump agenda.

“We shored up the reconciliation team because we know that this will be a heavy lift to get the Trump agenda across the line in the reconciliation package … That’s all we did,” Self said, later promising a “big, beautiful reconciliation package.”

Self said the team working on the bill would include members beyond the leadership, including some members of the House Freedom Caucus, but said, “I won’t get ahead of the speaker,” when asked specifically who.

Later, asked what swayed his vote, Self said he and Trump have the “same emphasis” on implementing the president-elect’s agenda.

“We have got to make sure this Congress is as strong as possible when we go up against the Senate on reconciliation package, because there’s their debates on what the reconciliation package even looks like. So that’s all I wanted to do today, is to make this Congress successful for the Trump agenda,” Self said.

Self said Trump did not warn him about facing a potential primary challenge over holding up Johnson’s speakership.

This post has been updated with additional comments from Self.

CNN’s Lauren Fox and Aileen Graef contributed reporting to this post.

House Speaker Mike Johnson took his oath of office following a dramatic vote Thursday that narrowly secured him the speakership once again.

Following his swearing-in, Johnson received a standing ovation from the majority of the chamber.

He then administered the oath of office for all members of the House, swearing in the 119th Congress.

A group of House Republicans who had been skeptical of House Speaker Mike Johnson — but ultimately came around, delivering a dramatic win on the first ballot Friday — released a letter outlining a list of demands they want Johnson to take up now that he has the speaker’s gavel.

The 11 House Republicans, including Rep. Ralph Norman who was a holdout until the last minute, called on Johnson to add session days to the House calendar, ensure that any reconciliation package includes significant spending cuts, and stop putting bills on the floor that rely heavily on Democratic support, or that come ahead of the 72 hours members are allotted to review legislation.

“Today we voted for Mike Johnson for Speaker of the House because of our steadfast support of President Trump and to ensure the timely certification of his electors,” the lawmakers wrote. “We did this despite our sincere reservations regarding the Speaker’s track record over the last 15 months.”

Listing out their legislative priorities, the lawmakers said Johnson has “zero room for error.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson said in his first remarks following his reelection to the speakership that the new Congress will “listen to the voices of the people.”

“In recent months, we’ve witnessed something happening — something that’s really remarkable, a political moment in our modern history: A groundswell Americans from every state, race and religion who now demand that we put the interest of Americans first again,” Johnson said. “And we will.”

Johnson also stressed that “the number one priority” under his leadership will be “defending our nation’s borders.”

“In coordination with President Trump, this Congress will give our border and immigration enforcement agents the resources that they need to do their job,” Johnson outlined. “We will secure the border. We will deport dangerous, criminal, illegal aliens and finally finish building the border wall.”

Johnson later in his remarks read a prayer entitled “Thomas Jefferson’s Prayer for the Nation.”

“We will not fail. We cannot fail. We are all in this together. Our nation is counting on us to band together and solve these problems and get this done,” Johnson said after reading the prayer. “I’ve said before that I believe God has elevated each one of you, that is my belief, to your positions of leadership and it’s an act of providence that you’ve all been placed in your specific roles in this specific moment at this historic time.”

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson said it is “the great honor of his life” to serve the House and noted that it is “a momentous time” in the nation’s history.

In his first remarks after being elected speaker on Friday, he noted that the 250th anniversary of the country’s founding will occur during the 119th Congress.

“And in these two and a half centuries, we’ve been reminded repeatedly that freedom is never free. We have stood tall as the greatest nation on the face of the earth,” Johnson said, adding the United States was the freest and most benevolent nation that has ever been.

“It’s not by happenstance. We are the ones who settled the West. We are the ones who ended slavery, who laid the transcontinental railroad, who gave women the right to vote, who won two world wars, who landed on the moon and who won the Cold War. Throughout our history, we have done what no one thought was possible. And still at 250 years old, our nation is actually a young nation.”