New York: The Republican Party crossed the 118-mark in the House of Representatives as late results trickled in, scoring an electoral trifecta controlling both chambers of Congress and the White House.
While the counting of votes in the November 5 election continues and the official announcement of results for all the seats is weeks away, three TV channels declared on the basis of their analysis that the party had crossed the halfway mark in the 435-member House.
Six results are pending and CBS said the party could gain at least three more of them, keeping the current tally of 221.
Earlier, the Republicans were declared by media to have wrested the Senate away from the Democrats winning 52 seats, with one pending result from Pennsylvania where the party candidate is leading.
And, Donald Trump won the presidential election with 312 of the 538 Electoral College votes, as well as a majority of the popular votes.
Having control of both Congress chambers will give Trump an edge in moving through legislation and the budget, although the slender lead in the House could sometimes stall them.
In the current House where the Republicans had a majority with 213 seats, the leaders found it difficult to get all of them to vote with them.
In fact, Speaker Mike Johnson won the position and retained it with the help of Democrats when radicals in his party tried to stage a coup against him in May. But Wednesday in a sign of discipline following Trump’s election, Republican House members voted to keep him on as Speaker and he is assured of it when the new House meets next year.
Trump signalled his support for Johnson when he attended the party’s House candidate forum of the re-elected and newly-elected members where he said, “Mike Johnson, tremendous guy, I’m with him all the way”.
Johnson said, “This leadership will hit the ground running to deliver President Trump’s agenda in the 119th Congress, and we will work closely with him and his administration to turn this country around and unleash, as he says, a new golden age in America”.
With Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell retiring, the party’s re-elected and newly-elected senators elected John Thune as his successor.
Trump said on Truth Social, “He moves quickly, and will do an outstanding job. I look forward to working with him” and other party leaders in the Senate.
The Senate must approve major appointments, including most of the cabinet positions.
Trump is trying to get around this by suggesting he should be allowed to make appointments when the Senate is in recess and can’t hold hearings or confirmation votes.
He said the new Senate leader should agree to it. Thune, however, held his ground that “the Senate has an advise and consent rule in the Constitution”, but also added that confirmations should be done expeditiously and “how that happens remains to be seen”.
