Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., on Newsmax on Friday delivered a message for his fellow Republicans ahead of Friday's vote for House speaker in the 119th Congress: It's time to get on board and row together to reelect Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., to the lower chamber's top job.
"It's time for everybody to put aside any type of petty differences they might have [and] understand that we are a Republican conference and that we collectively were given a mandate by the American people, and it wasn't a mandate to come up here and be a cast member on a reality television show," Van Orden told Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "It was to come up here and to govern. So President [-elect Donald] Trump is the leader of the Republican Party now. He is the captain; he called the ball, and it's time for us to remember that we're part of a team, so everybody has to function as a single unit. We have a very slim majority, and if we do this collectively, we're going to carry out the mandate that the American people gave us."
"I'm really excited to get going in this Congress, and I believe that my friends in the Freedom Caucus, and some other folks, are going to get on board and realize that this isn't about us as individuals," he added. "It's about us as a nation."
Johnson expressed optimism Thursday night that he would be reelected, telling Newsmax that "the House Republican Conference understands the necessity of the moment, the urgency of the hour."
"They know we don't have time for games and palace intrigue," Johnson said. "We've got a lot of very important work to do. We have to deliver on the America First agenda."
Van Orden echoed Johnson, saying he'd like to get the speaker reelected "in the least dramatic way possible" later on Friday, so the House can focus on "a very aggressive agenda that needs to be executed." In the event of a protracted fight over the speakership, the GOP would potentially be unable to govern or get to work on President-elect Donald Trump's priorities until a candidate won majority support.
Republican lawmakers who may be considering voting "no" on Johnson need to realize that it's time to "get on the boat and start rowing in a single direction," Van Orden said.
"Being a leader — in order to be a leader — first, you have to be a follower," he said. "So these folks have a lot of things that they can contribute to the conference, and they need to do that as a member of the team. It's just that simple. I come from the [Navy] SEAL teams, and we work together collectively for a higher purpose, and that's what's going to happen today."
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