'Calm before the storm': Ex-senator expects 'big thunderclouds' ahead for Mike Johnson

A former senator thinks House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is headed for a coming storm.

Johnson held open the first vote as long as he could Friday for the speaker's chair so he could work out deals to get Republicans to support him after they initially refused to vote for him.

Former Sen. Claire McCaskill called this the "calm before the storm."

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"We got here because the Republican Party is really not united," she said. "There are different factions in the Republican Party and because our country is so evenly divided, this is really the calm before the storm."

McCaskill said that because Donald Trump appointed several members of Congress to his administration, Johnson would lose enough votes to give Democrats a lead.

"Johnson is going to have big problems down the line," she continued. "He has to fund the government in March and he is going to lose three members between now and March, which means he cannot fund the government without Democratic votes and then enter [Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries and his ability to negotiate for some Democratic priorities that aren't about tax cuts for the rich people but rather about things that really matter to American families that are struggling paycheck to paycheck."

"This is really the calm before the storm," she closed. "There are big thunderclouds on the horizon for Mike Johnson, and they are coming for him."

See the moment in the video below or at the link here.

- YouTube youtu.be