Deirdre Walsh
speaker
394 appearances
48 recordings
2 series
first heard Nov 2024
last heard 11 Dec
Deirdre Walsh’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
Trend
recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 22 in all, peaking in Nov 2025 with 9.
Appearances
Initially, there were two other Republicans, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas, who voted for people other than Johnson. I was in the chamber as this vote dragged on and on, and it was clear Johnson didn't have the votes, and we expected it to go a second round.
But then I saw Johnson leave the floor with both Norman and Self, and they both came back and dramatically changed their votes so he could win on the first ballot. You know, it was very clear Trump did not want this to drag out. You know, no other business can happen until a speaker is elected in the House. And on Monday, they are slated to certify the 2024 election results.
And that's something Trump did not want to delay at all.
Well, addressing border security was a Republican's top priority in the 2024 campaign. And the speaker made it clear yesterday that This was an issue they would take up right out of the gate.
The rules packaged the House passed yesterday that governs how the chamber is going to operate also included a rule to tee up several immigration bills. These are proposals that House Republicans have pushed through before, things like cutting off federal money for any cities. that are dubbed so-called sanctuary cities for undocumented migrants.
The difference now is there's now a Senate Republican majority to help push through border security legislation.
Well, it was definitely a smoother first day for John Thune. He now has a 53-seat Republican majority, and he's been coordinating very closely with President-elect Trump and Speaker Johnson. First, Thune is focused on getting Trump's cabinet nominees confirmed in the Senate. Republicans need a simple majority to get these nominees through.
So far, there's been no Republican senator who's come out publicly as a no for any nominee. But if any four Republicans did break, one of Trump's nominees couldn't get confirmed. There are some controversial nominees that we've talked about before, like Pete Hegseth, to be the defense secretary, Tulsi Gabbard, to serve as the director of national intelligence.
And there's still some Republican senators who want more details, things like the FBI background check. Other confirmation hearings are expected to start in mid-January.
You know, his plans track those of Trump's. Here's how Thune summed it up yesterday.
Thune is already hard at work drafting an initial legislative package he plans to move using special rules that get around a Democratic filibuster. Like Johnson, he wants to do border security first. That package initially in the Senate will also include some energy policies, and then a separate tax bill is going to come later in 2025.
Happy to do it, Eric.
Johnson was an early re-elected Speaker on the first ballot. Initially, three Republicans voted against him, but he convinced two of them, Ralph Norman of South Carolina and Keith Self of Texas, to vote against him. to change their votes. After he won, Johnson vowed to tackle a key priority his party focused on in the 2024 election.
Because Republicans hold a narrow majority, Johnson could only afford one defection. The House has to approve a package of rules for how the chamber will operate. and then is expected to turn to border security legislation later this month. Deirdre Walsh, NPR News, the Capitol.
It failed because a significant block of the speaker's own Republican colleagues joined most Democrats and tanked it. Even after President-elect Trump endorsed the deal, this Republican deal, and threatened primary challengers for any Republican lawmaker who voted no. Most House conservatives who voted against this criticized the decision.
At Trump's insistence to add a two-year increase to the country's borrowing authority without any spending cuts, Texas Republican Chip Roy was one of them, and he chastised his Republican colleagues on the House floor.
Republicans were essentially daring Democrats to vote no on this latest plan and argued they were the ones who wanted a shutdown. But Democrats opposed adding the debt limit and said provisions in the original bipartisan deal, things like lowering drug costs, funding children's cancer research, preventing China from getting access to U.S.
technologies were dumped out because Elon Musk was advising Trump and was looking out for his own interests. And Democrats took a swipe at the president-elect, suggesting someone else was actually calling the shots. And they call it Musk, President Musk.
You know, we have hours to go before the midnight deadline and a shutdown is much more likely. Late last night, House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters he's regrouping, coming up with a new solution. But he didn't say what that was. It's hard to see what he can do to keep his own party together.
And Democrats continue to say the only way out of this to avoid a shutdown is move something that can get bipartisan support.
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