Tuesday on Fox Business Network’s “Morning with Maria,” Rep. Keith Self (R-TX), one of the two holdouts in the speaker’s race who eventually changed their vote from against to for Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) for speaker, said he received assurances from President-elect Donald Trump and Johnson on reconciliation before he and Rep. Ralph Norman (R-NC) changed their votes.
According to the Texas Republican, the House would offer a “strong negotiating team” to challenge the Senate.
“Well, we had two conversations, as you just said. I told both Mike Johnson and President Trump what I was going to do before the vote, and he was about to hit a five iron, but we had a very good conversation about how to advance the Trump agenda,” Self said. “And, he knew what I was going to do. And the second conversation was what I heard, and a lot of people said, ‘Get in line,’ but what I heard was he was telling Mike and the two of us, Ralph Norman and myself — get the negotiations done because he’s in a hurry, and I get it, he’s ready to go. So what changed my mind is I got assurances from Mike Johnson — we got assurances from Mike Johnson that we will have a very strong negotiating team with the Senate when we go up against them for reconciliation.”
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