Saturday night’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner attack is shaking up what was already going to be a grueling week for House GOP leaders.
Here’s what we know.
Speaker Mike Johnson, who was among those evacuated from the Washington Hilton, is moving ahead with votes on the three-year Section 702 extension on Tuesday, the immigration enforcement budget blueprint on Wednesday and the farm bill on Thursday.
All three have been mired in internal GOP squabbles, and a rank-and-file hunger to respond to the WHCD shooting may create further complications. GOP hard-liners including Rep. Chip Roy are pushing for White House ballroom money to be attached to immigration funding.
One response that some House Republicans are starting to explore is creating a special committee to investigate the shooting and security around the event, said three people granted anonymity to relay the discussions. Already, House Oversight, House Homeland Security and Senate Judiciary have requested briefings from the Secret Service.
King Charles III’s address to Congress on Tuesday is proceeding, and Hill leadership circles have discussed tightening security protocols.
With President Donald Trump vowing to reschedule the media gala, lawmakers are also warning about the need to strengthen security around the next gathering of the president, his Cabinet, congressional leaders and hundreds of journalists and their guests.
“There needs to be wholesale change,” Rep. Mike Lawler, who attended Saturday, said in an interview. “This nutjob could have walked into any of the other events before the dinner and caused mass casualties.”
“I was at a table talking about how accessible members of Congress are, and then pop, pop, pop,” Rep. Marlin Stutzman said in an interview. He added that a “hotel is a bad idea,” and argued that the construction of a White House ballroom, which has been mired in litigation, should get the go-ahead.
Mark Teixeira, the former Major League Baseball player poised to succeed Roy in his Texas Hill Country district, said in an interview that, after he heard the shots and ducked under his table, his mind started racing to the worst-case scenario — “that somebody was inside the room with a gun and a suppressor.”
“My heart sank,” he said. “Your mind just goes to the worst-case scenario. … You’re just hoping that no one was shot, including the president.”
“The hotel and surrounding area” were not secure, he added.
What else we’re watching
— Sanders vs. Schumer: Sen. Bernie Sanders is vowing to force more votes to block U.S. arms sales to Israel and build on growing momentum among Democrats, despite opposition from leaders including Chuck Schumer.
“What is noteworthy is that you have two major leaders of the Democratic Party, both Chuck and Kirsten Gillibrand, being in the significant minority of their party in terms of their votes on continuing to fund military aid to Israel,” Sanders said in an interview.
— Warsh likely Fed chair by mid-May: With Sen. Thom Tillis now on board, Senate Republicans are set to approve Kevin Warsh’s Federal Reserve chair nomination in what will likely be a party-line committee vote Wednesday and then confirm him for the position the week of May 11.
The timeline would get Warsh to the central bank ahead of Jerome Powell’s term as Fed chair expiring on May 15. Absent unanimous consent to expedite Warsh’s confirmation, Senate Majority Leader John Thune can file cloture on the nomination as soon as Thursday.
Sophia Cai, Jordain Carney, Hailey Fuchs and Jasper Goodman contributed reporting.
