In October 2023, Republican lawmakers had a surprisingly difficult time finding a House speaker. After Kevin McCarthy was ousted under historically unprecedented circumstances, it seemed likely that the torch would be passed to House Majority Leader Steve Scalise. When his tenure as speaker-designate collapsed after one day, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan appeared likely to get the gavel.
When he also failed to have the necessary support, the party turned to its fourth choice, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, whose tenure as speaker-designate was killed by Donald Trump — who held a grudge against the Minnesotan after he sided with democracy and voted to certify the 2020 presidential election.
Almost immediately after House Republicans nominated Emmer for speaker, the former president issued a public condemnation of the congressman, labeling the Minnesotan “a Globalist RINO” who was “totally out-of-touch with Republican Voters.” (Emmer had reached out to Trump directly ahead of the conference vote, making his case, telling him that he’s Trump’s “biggest fan.” The lobbying didn’t work.)
Thanks to Trump, a mere four hours after Emmer became the speaker-designate, he was the former speaker-designate, as part of an unprecedented turn of events. As the dust settled, Trump gloated about having taken Emmer down. “He’s done. It’s over,” the former president reportedly said in reference to his party’s majority whip. “I killed him.”
Common sense might have suggested that the Minnesotan would hold a grudge. The opposite proved true: Emmer joined his party’s club of shameless Trump sycophants, as was clear during his appearance Wednesday on Fox Business.
Reflecting on the president’s success in bringing down a group of Indiana state senators in GOP primaries, Emmer told host Stuart Varney:
All of these polls that try to suggest that Donald Trump’s influence is waning are completely false. Donald Trump has never been stronger, especially with the Republican base, and you saw it last night in Indiana. He has become more than Donald Trump. He is an icon of the ages, and when he speaks, people listen, and I know the left doesn’t like to hear that, Stuart, but it’s fact, and you saw it last night on display in Indiana.
I recently made the case that as the president’s approval rating reaches new depths, congressional Republicans eyeing this year’s midterm elections have a decision to make: tie themselves to a flailing and unpopular leader, or put some distance between themselves and the White House.
Evidently, Emmer has made up his mind. He’s sticking with the guy who mocked him as “a Globalist RINO.”
As a substantive matter, the congressman’s over-the-top praise was bizarre. The fact that Trump can take down some state senators in a red state in low-turnout primaries in early May is notable, but it does not make him a political colossus.
Emmer probably knows this, but in his desperate effort to avoid presidential criticism, he labeled Trump “an icon of the ages” anyway, seemingly indifferent to self-respect.
After the Minnesota Republican went to humiliating lengths to work his way back into Trump’s good graces with groveling sycophancy, Trump reportedly boasted privately, in reference to the congressman, “They always bend the knee.”
Two years later, as Emmer’s latest pitiful display helped demonstrate, too little has changed.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.
Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”
