BURSTSen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) predicted that new leadership in the House is "inevitable" as Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) seeks to maintain the top post in the lower chamber of Congress.
“We're going to need new leadership. We've got new leadership in the Senate in the coming year. And I believe that the writing's on the wall, unless I'm just mistaken, it seems to me that new leadership in the House is almost inevitable," Lee told political commentator Benny Johnson on "The Benny Show."
Lee's comments come as Johnson's grasp on the gavel has been thrown into uncertainty ahead of the Jan. 3 Speaker vote amid his handling of the end-of-the-year spending deal. Some GOP lawmakers have questioned Johnson's leadership as President-elect Trump and Elon Musk have vocalized their opposition to the legislation.
On the show, Lee, who's set to lead the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee next year, took aim at what he described as the "law firm" of leadership in Congress, which he said consists of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), outgoing Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), Speaker Johnson and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
"There's no joy in seeing the process of government that could and should be orderly turned into a needlessly chaotic one. But this is, I will say, the inevitable consequence, the inevitable culmination — one that I've been predicting for well over a decade — of the demise of the law firm of Schumer, McConnell, Johnson, and Jeffries," Lee said.
"There's this four-person cartel that has dominated Congress for the entirety of the 14 years I've been here. It goes through a different iteration every so often," he added, stating the lawmakers have "shafted us again."
Lee during the interview also suggested that Republicans choose either Vivek Ramaswamy or Elon Musk to take over the speakership, citing their leadership at the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
"Let them choose one of them — I don't care which one — to be their speaker," Lee said. "That would revolutionize everything. It would break up the firm."