Morning Report — ‘All-encompassing’: Johnson’s fight for the House majority

In today’s issue:

• Speaker’s DC cure: ‘Grow the majority’ 
• Trump’s ‘like it or not’ frames gender gap
• Campaigns busy with transition plans
• Middle East cease-fire elusive

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While Vice President Harris and former President Trump crisscross the country in the final stretch of the presidential campaign, a second race is taking place — for GOP leadership in Congress.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is working to maintain — and expand on — his party’s razor-thin majority in the House. The Speaker has constantly been on the road this fall, crisscrossing the country to raise money and save a fragile GOP coalition. In an interview with The Hill’s Emily Brooks from the campaign trail in Pennsylvania, Johnson said he “probably underestimated” just how much work it would take to help the House GOP's massive political operation.

“It’s been all-encompassing,” said Johnson, who recently reached the one-year mark as Speaker. 

Johnson, who secured the gavel after a protracted leadership fight that followed the unprecedented ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has been tasked with leading a fractious House GOP conference with an excruciatingly small majority, and it could stay that way even if Republicans keep the lower chamber.

“It is not like herding cats. It is like exotic animals — and half of them have rabies in Washington. It’s a very dangerous job,” Johnson said to a crowd of about 90 people in the GOP’s field office in Bethlehem, Pa., where he was stumping for House candidate Ryan Mackenzie. “I spent half my day as the Speaker of the House, the other half as a mental health counselor. The solution is to grow that majority and to have people who can come in on day one and perform for the people who govern.”

That stump in Pennsylvania, eight days before Election Day, marked the 243rd city across 40 states the Speaker has visited in the last year. But the irony is that Johnson’s future is in question whether he succeeds or fails.

Many Republicans expect that Johnson wouldn’t be elected to leadership if the GOP is relegated to the House minority. If they do retain their ranks, Johnson’s ability to remain Speaker depends on the margin — Johnson would need the vast majority of Republicans to back him in a vote on the House floor.

But it’s Trump who could be the most influential factor in rallying rabble-rousers around a Speaker. And in a good sign for Johnson, the former president gave him a stamp of approval at his Madison Square Garden rally on Sunday, predicting that Johnson will be around “for a long time.”

The Hill: A Democratic-aligned PAC and two other shadowy groups in a competitive House district are seeking to boost the chances of an independent candidate running against Republican incumbent Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.).

THE GOP LEADERSHIP FIGHT is also on in the Senate, where Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.) is locked in a tough race with Sen. John Cornyn (Texas) to succeed Sen. Mitch McConnell (Ky.) as Senate Republican leader next year.

National Republican Senatorial Committee Chair Steve Daines (Mont.), who is sitting the race out, is privately telling colleagues that he will support Thune, The Hill’s Alexander Bolton reports. Thune has long been considered a front-runner to replace McConnell, but several GOP sources told Axios there is serious momentum behind Cornyn’s bid.

With polls showing that Republicans are expected to win back the Senate majority next week, Daines will get a lot of the credit as chair of the Senate Republican campaign arm, especially since the pivotal race is in his home state of Montana between former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehy and Democratic Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.).

Notably, both Thune and Cornyn have had rocky relationships with Trump but have worked hard to smooth them over. It’s unclear whether Trump will weigh in on the race at all. But MAGA loyalist Laura Loomer seemed to indicate interest from the former president’s camp with a Wednesday post on the social platform X.

“We the loyal MAGA BASE are going to revolt against a Cornyn or Thune leadership installation,” Loomer wrote.

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SMART TAKE FROM THE HILL'S BOB CUSACK:

Former Rep. Jim Greenwood (R-Pa.), who supported President Biden in the last presidential election, communicated a clear message for the Biden campaign following the June 27 debate with Trump: Joe needs to step aside.

The next day, Hunter Biden called Greenwood to relay (in colorful language) that his father wasn't — and shouldn't — withdraw from the race. Greenwood held his ground. This year, Greenwood again is opposing Trump and is working to elect Harris. 

Greenwood has never been a fan of Trump, calling him "a malignant narcissist." However, he acknowledged in an interview with me that Trump's "visceral" campaign ads on immigration have resonated in the Keystone State. In the final days of the campaign, Greenwood said it would be wise for Harris to respond more to Trump's attacks on immigration. 

Greenwood, who was known as a moderate and pragmatist in Congress, believes that Harris will win his pivotal home state of Pennsylvania and the Electoral College but added, “I wouldn't bet a whole lot of money on it.”

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3 THINGS TO KNOW TODAY:

▪ Ford will idle its F-150 Lightning truck production in Michigan beginning Nov. 15 as electric vehicle demand wanes and losses mount. About 800 workers are likely affected, including 750 hourly workers. At the same time, sales of General Motors’s battery-powered models are starting to surge.

▪ Here’s how each of the seven key swing states would handle a 2024 recount.

â–ª After enjoying a dramatic spike in popularity, chess is at a moment of reckoning. 

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LEADING THE DAY  

Harris objected Thursday to a Trump comment this week that he would protect women whether they “like it or not.” The former president has been working with mixed success, according to recent polls, to expand support from female voters. With one phrase, the Republican nominee defined the gender gap and strengthened Democratic arguments to elect Harris, his critics said. 

“I think it’s offensive to everybody,” the vice president said, adding later while campaigning in Phoenix that her opponent “simply does not respect the freedom of women or the intelligence of women to know what’s in their own best interests and make decisions accordingly. But we trust women.” (NBC News interview with Harris HERE).

Trump’s bravado-heavy style of barnstorming, his anti-abortion stance, social media barbs and verbal attacks attract headlines but alienate some potential voters who might still be on the fence.  

Even Trump’s helpers are not always helpful in the final days of a neck and neck contest. Elon Musk, a top Trump supporter, appeared to acknowledge in a social media post that Americans would face “temporary hardship” under Trump’s economic proposals. A leading Trump transition official indicated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a vaccine skeptic, would have sway to pull drugs off the market if Trump is elected and Kennedy joins a new administration.

Trump, appearing Thursday in Arizona with conservative backer Tucker Carlson, said Musk and Kennedy could be “influential figures,” if he wins.  

Musk’s recent call for “at least” $2 trillion in cuts to federal spending was shot down by budget experts. Trump, with his fiscal campaign pledges, “is working at odds with what he needs next year” if he wants to renew the signature 2017 GOP tax bill, said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director, who spoke Thursday to Bloomberg TV and radio. 

Transcript distortion?: White House press staff altered the publicly released transcript of a call in which the president appeared to take a swipe at Trump supporters, drawing objections from the federal employees who document presidential utterances for posterity, The Associated Press reported Thursday. Biden, according to a transcript prepared by the official White House stenographers, told a Latino group on a Tuesday evening video call, “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters — his — his demonization of Latinos is unconscionable, and it’s un-American.”

Biden was reacting to a comedian’s joke at a Trump rally that referred to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” The president’s press staff changed “supporters” to “supporter’s” to suggest Biden was criticizing the comic rather than voters who back Trump. An internal email communication from stenographers to the White House press office obtained by AP called the alteration “a breach of protocol” and objected. “Our Stenography Office transcript — released to our distro, which includes the National Archives — is now different than the version edited and released to the public by Press Office staff.”

“News distortion”?: Trump, known for his media critiques, sued CBS on Thursday in a federal court in Texas over its “60 Minutes” interview last month with the vice president. He seeks $10 billion in damages and alleges the network engaged in “partisan and unlawful acts of election and voter interference through malicious, deceptive, and substantial news distortion.” CBS, which said Trump’s assertions are “false” in its Oct. 20 statement, is one of several mainstream news networks the former president has threatened with federal punishment if he is elected.

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2024 CAMPAIGN ROUNDUP:

Ad spending is huge: Federal and gubernatorial campaigns have spent $4.5 billion on television and radio advertising since January 2023, according to a new Wesleyan Media Project report. When digital ad spending is added to the mix, total spending tops $5 billion so far. At least $1.2 billion was spent on nearly 1.5 million broadcast television ad airings in Senate races. In House races, spending has approached $850 million.

Democrats worry over the fate of women's health research if Trump is reelected: “He's actively working against us.”

Abortion bans and “preventable death”: How a 28-year-old mother died in a Houston hospital after suffering a miscarriage in 2021. 

Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), who has undergone one of the most stunning election-year transformations as a conservative, is battling Trump as a Harris supporter — and even endorsed a handful of downballot Democrats. Her impact on the race, however, is unclear. Some Democrats believe if Harris wins, Cheney would become the GOP Cabinet member the vice president has pledged to appoint. Trump knocked Cheney as a “war hawk” in Arizona Thursday.

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WHERE AND WHEN

• The House will convene a pro forma session at 2 p.m. The Senate will hold a pro forma session at 11:30 a.m. 
  
• The president will travel to Philadelphia to speak this afternoon about his administration’s support for unions at a Sprinkler Fitters local union location. The president will depart for Wilmington, Del., after his remarks. On Saturday, Biden will head to Scranton, Pa., his birthplace, to campaign for the vice president.
  
• Economic indicator: The Labor Department at 8:30 a.m. will report on U.S. employment in October.    
  
• Candidate schedules this week: Harris will campaign in Janesville, Wis., Little Chute, Wis., and West Allis, Wis., in the Milwaukee area. On Saturday, the vice president will return to Atlanta in the afternoon and Charlotte, N.C., in the evening with a rally and concert. On Sunday, Harris again will be in Detroit and hold a rally at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Mich. On Monday, she will court voters in Allentown, Pa., Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. On Tuesday, she will await election returns from Washington with an event at Howard University. Today, Trump will campaign in Warren, Mich., and Milwaukee. On Saturday, the former president will campaign in Gastonia, N.C.; Salem, Va.; and in Greensboro, N.C. On Tuesday, the former president plans an election watch party in Palm Beach, Fla. Today, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) will campaign in Detroit, Flint, Mich., and Traverse City, Mich. Today, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) will be in Portage, Mich., and Selma, N.C. On Saturday, Vance will campaign in Las Vegas and Scottsdale, Ariz.  

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ZOOM IN

Transition: Federal agency transition members met with representatives from both the Harris and Trump campaigns Tuesday to discuss required planning to get a new administration up and running by Jan. 21.

Harris’s transition team, led by Yohannes Abraham, is low-profile and lean. If she wins Nov. 5, it would be the first transfer of power from a sitting president to a vice president in more than a quarter-century. If elected, Harris is likely to face a Republican Senate majority, meaning anticipated confirmation challenges. She might decide to hold over some officials from the Biden administration who previously cleared Senate confirmation.

Meet Howard Lutnick, the Wall Street big wig who has become Trump’s headhunter in chief for a possible new administration.

Congress took action to fix presidential transitions after 2021. Trump is testing those changes.

Public health: How a second Trump term could recast the Department of Health and Human Services, including the Food and Drug Administration, the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

Medicare: Here’s how proposals and pledges by the two presidential candidates compare. 

Technology: Where do Harris and Trump stand?

Marriage equality and LGBTQ rights: Sizing up Harris and Trump on their messages, policies and backgrounds. 

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ELSEWHERE

CEASE-FIRE TALKS: Senior White House officials Amos Hochstein and Brett McGurk on Thursday met in Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said they planned to discuss “a diplomatic resolution” in Lebanon.

Netanyahu told the officials that the main points of any cease-fire agreement with Hezbollah must provide Israel the ability to counter security threats from Lebanon and return Israeli citizens to communities in the north of the country. But expectations are low for reaching an agreement. The visit by McGurk and Hochstein to Israel follows a visit by Secretary of State Antony Blinken to the region last week, his 11th trip over the course of a year — following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, terrorist attack against Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, and Hezbollah’s attacks from the south of Lebanon into Israel beginning on the next day, Oct. 8. 

“I don’t want to lay odds on what the chances are of getting a deal,” Miller said. 

Meanwhile, CIA Director William Burns met with Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in Cairo and discussed efforts to reach a cease-fire and hostage-release deal in Gaza.

ISRAELI INTELLIGENCE SUGGESTS Iran is preparing to attack Israel from Iraqi territory in the coming days, possibly before the U.S. presidential election, Axios reports. A high-ranking Iranian source told CNN that Iran is planning a "definitive and painful" response that will likely come before the election. Mohammad Mohammadi Golpayegani, chief of staff to Iran's supreme leader, said Thursday that Iranian retaliation was "certain." 

â–ª Axios: The Biden administration is ratcheting up pressure on the Israeli government to meet a set of demands from the U.S. to address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

â–ª The New York Times: Raging waters, abandoned cars, layers of mud: more than 150 killed in Spanish floods.

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OPINION 

â–  Why I’m voting for Kamala Harris, by Michael R. Bloomberg, contributor, Bloomberg Opinion. 

â–  The 76 dangerous days between the election and the inauguration, by Brian Michael Jenkins, opinion contributor, The Hill.

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THE CLOSER

And finally … 👏👏👏 Kudos to this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners, who dove deep into some presidential trivia assembled by The Hill’s guest puzzle master, Jared Gans! 

Here’s who went 4/4: Jordan Ryan, Pam Manges, Linda L. Field, Roger Langendoerfer, Terry Pflaumer and Ken Barclay.

They knew that after George Washington, James Monroe came closest to winning a unanimous victory in the Electoral College.

Samuel J. Tilden was the only losing presidential candidate to win a majority of the popular vote.

Capturing more than a quarter of the popular and electoral vote, Theodore Roosevelt ran the most successful third-party presidential candidacy in history in 1912.

The first presidential election year in which a Democratic and Republican candidate faced off against each other was 1856.

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