Johnson scrambles to avoid shutdown weeks before election

Good evening and welcome to Washington Week.

So, I made a promise to myself not to use the term continuing resolution on this show until absolutely necessary.

It's kind of like the Ambien of congressional legislation.

But we're looking at the prospect of another government shutdown and renewed questions about Speaker Mike Johnson's ability to keep his caucus in line.

We'll talk about this tonight, and we'll also talk about yet another tumultuous week in the presidential race, including the fallout for one unfortunate Ohio town after Trump and J.D.

Vance, his running mate, spread false claims that immigrants there were eating pets.

Also, we'll discuss the term black Nazi, believe it or not.

Joining me tonight at the table, Leigh Ann Caldwell, anchor of Washington Post Live and co-author of the Post's Early Brief, Caitlin Dickerson, my colleague at The Atlantic, and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for her coverage of immigration, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a White House correspondent for The New York Times, and McKay Coppins, an Atlantic staff writer and author of Romney, A Reckoning.

Welcome to all of you.

Thank you for being here.

Leigh Ann, you're up.

You're one of the eight people I know who knows what a continuing resolution even is.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, Anchor, Washington Post Live: Yes, unfortunately.

JEFFREY GOLDBERG: Give us the latest on the threat of a government shutdown.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: So, the government is poised to run out of money a week from Monday.

We are once again, year-after-year, up against the deadline.

So, what happened this past week is Speaker Mike Johnson, he put forward a bill, a conservative bill, that would fund the government just for six months alongside a very potent political issue for Republicans.

And that is a bill that would require proof of citizenship to register to vote.

This is something that Donald Trump has talked about.

This was an ask from him.

So, he put this bill forward knowing it was going to fail.

He did not have the support of enough Republicans in his party for a multitude of reasons.

It failed, as expected.

Now, Speaker Johnson is coming back saying to other leaders of Congress, look, I tried blaming members of his party.

They weren't able to go along with it.

And so now there are negotiations happening.

There's expected to be a bipartisan supported bill that perhaps comes out as early as this weekend.

No one wants the government to shut down.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell this week said that Republicans will get blamed if the government shuts down and that's the overwhelming thought on Capitol Hill.

But the reality is -- JEFFREY GOLDBERG: His analysis is correct, Republicans will get blamed?

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: And Republicans know that they're going to get blamed as Speaker Johnson made this move.

And one thing I want to say about that is Speaker Johnson put forward this plan that was not popular even with Republicans.

They thought it was a gimmick, a ploy.

There's multitude of reasons.

But he did it because he got a lot of pressure from the ultra conservative portion of his conference, the Freedom Caucus.

And he did it because he has his own concerns in mind.

He wants to remain speaker of the House or leader of the Republican Party.

So, he's continuously trying to appease that group even though he's wasted two weeks with this idea that was going absolutely nowhere.

JEFFREY GOLDBERG: So, Zolan, is his speakership under threat.

I mean, he's done a pretty good job partially thanks to Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, coming to the rescue a few months ago.

But is his speakership under threat again?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, White House Correspondent, The New York Times: Yes.

I mean, even if they pass, you know, a three-month clean bill and they avoid a government shutdown, his political headaches aren't going away.

At that point you then need to answer also to somebody else who may want a government shutdown if they don't pass these immigration restrictions that he's looking for, and that being the former president.

You have to basically face the pressure from the former president.

And this is not the first time that he has tried to basically use Congress, pull the strings in Congress, in order to benefit himself when it comes to the presidential election.

And if Mike Johnson is able to, you know, do something that Democrats and Republicans want here, which is to avoid a government shutdown, he will still face that pressure from somebody who still holds a grip over his party.

JEFFREY GOLDBERG: I'm assuming that Leader Jeffries doesn't come to the rescue this time.

There's no particular reason, right?

There's nothing of existential importance, like the Ukraine bill, for instance.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS: Right, there's not as much leverage, really, at this point, you know, for Mike Johnson or something like Ukraine that would cause Democrats to immediately come to the table for something beyond politics.

JEFFREY GOLDBERG: So we'll be talking about this next week.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL: Well, that's what I was going to say, yes, we have next Friday.

So, hopefully -- JEFFREY GOLDBERG: Oh, great, yes, this is what I want to say, continuing resolution over and over again, yes.