Annie Karni

I think they become incredibly passionate and feel like they cannot move.

Totally.

I mean, this was shaping up to be a terrible vote for Republicans.

Not only choosing between Trump and the victims themselves, but Trump and their own voters who have been demanding this release.

So after Grijalva is sworn in,

It's just a matter of what day Mike Johnson is going to schedule the vote because it's an inevitability at that point.

Right.

And he decides to do it rather quickly and just get done with it.

So Speaker Johnson says he's going to schedule the vote for early this week.

And it becomes clear internally in the conference that many Republicans are going to vote for it.

Correct.

So they start telling the president this.

Members themselves are talking to him.

And over the last weekend, he was in Florida.

And he's hearing that there are going to be many defections and that the vote is inevitable at this point.

And he realizes he is going to lose.

And he does not like to lose.

Another thing that he heard from members was that the more he was fighting, the more it looked like he was trying to cover something up.

So on the flight back from Florida on Sunday night on Air Force One, he drafts this Truth Social post doing a 180 and telling House Republicans to vote for the release.

This was great news for House Republicans who were saved from this awful choice.