Washington Examiner, December 2024
Republicans have given Democrats an opportunity to start repairing their relationship with voters following President-elect Donald Trump‘s win as they scramble to avoid a partial government shutdown Friday at midnight. House Republican leaders have unsuccessfully been able to gather enough support from their conference for two separate continuing resolutions, with the second version of the legislation, backed by Trump, failing on the House floor Thursday evening. House Speaker Mike Johnson‘s (R-LA) original bipartisan plan to fund the federal government until March 14 was killed less than 24 hours after it was released after Trump and his allies, including Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, publicly disparaged the agreement, causing a growing number of GOP opposition to the legislation. But the Republican infighting has provided Democrats with their first post-election opportunity to contrast themselves with Republicans, whose leadership of the House since 2023 has been marred with controversy.
