Q&A of the Day – Is it Really Possible for Chuck Grassley to Become President?

According to the Constitution, a joint session of congress is to convene on January 6th, a week from today, to certify the presidential election results. If, however, by next Monday the House doesn’t have a speaker, it’s not possible to convene a joint session of congress.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Three motest answers to questions you won't here anywhere else.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
The Q and A of the day reaction from our
government to Brian mudshow, I don't get that.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Today's Q and A is it really possible for Chuck
Grassley to become president? This is brought to you by
Melissa and Ashes check Mark Collections. Each day I feature
a listener question that is sent by one of these methods.
You may email me Brian Mudd at iHeartMedia dot com,
hit me up on social at Brian Mud Radio. May
also use the iHeartRadio talk back feature. Just go to

(00:35):
w J and O or Uro Patriot inside of the
iHeart Radio app. Follow us once you get there. Once
you do, look for the little microphone button. See it,
tap it. You may lay down a message right there,
maybe for a future Q and A. Today's note this
at Brian Mud Radio, say what is it really possible
for Chuck Grassley to become president? Please explain? Yeah, it

(00:55):
is really possible for Chuck Grassley to become the next president.
And if the GOP cannot unify behind a House speaker
prior to January twentieth Now today's note. It's in a
response to a statement I made while filling in for
Klay Travis and Buck Sexton last week while speaking of

(01:17):
the need for the GFP to stop the infighting and
to unify it behind a House speaker, as multiple Republicans
in the House have once again indicated they're either not
intending to vote for current House Speaker Mike Johnson, the
man Donald Trump told the conference to unify behind, so,

(01:43):
as I mentioned, that would not only leave President elect
Trump's agenda compromised in the process. Most importantly, there wouldn't
even be a President Trump without a House Speaker in place.
So let's break that down. One hundred and nineteenth Congress
is set to convene this Friday. It's January third. The

(02:04):
first order of business for all newly elected members of
Congress to be sworn in. This means all newly elected
senators in every member of the House of Representatives. So
the next order of business is leadership votes. Most importantly,
as it pertains to this conversation, house speakership. It is
literally not possible for the House to begin to carry

(02:26):
out business until a speaker is agreed upon us It's
the Speaker of the House that determines the House's agenda,
and we saw this play out in the previous Congress,
the one we're currently in, when House business was delayed
by three days as it took fifteen rounds of voting
for Kevin McCarthy to finally win a majority vote to

(02:47):
become speaker. That was before he end up getting thrown overboard.
A delay this time around, when Congress must certify the
results of a presidential election would have far greater consequences
compared to the one hundred and eighteenth Congress convening following
midterm elections. According to the Constitution, a joint session of

(03:09):
Congress is to convene on January sixth, a week from today,
to certify the presidential election results. If, however, by next Monday,
the House doesn't have a speaker, it's not possible to
convene a joint session of Congress, and thus the certification

(03:30):
of the presidential.

Speaker 2 (03:31):
Election wouldn't take place.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
If that were to happen, well, you'd have a cascading
set of circumstances and consequences. If Donald Trump is certified
as the next president, the Senate can begin its business
of voting on Trump's cabinet nominees, requiring Senate approval. Doing
so would enable Trump to hit the ground running, as
he stated he intends to have his administration fully operational

(03:55):
by two pm on the twentieth, so literally every day
the certificate as would be pushed back. It would harm
Trump's agenda and an excusable thing for a Republican House
majority to do. But let's say that by January twentieth
there still isn't a House Speaker and thus presidential certification vote.

(04:17):
What happens then under the constitution there must be a
new president sworn in on January twentieth without a vice
president in place. The next in line in secession is
the House Speaker. Of course, if we don't have a
House Speaker bringing about this potential crisis, we would then
have to go to the next in line behind the Speaker,

(04:40):
which is the Senate President Tim Poor, which would be
ninety one year old Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley.

Speaker 2 (04:49):
So that's how this could happen.

Speaker 1 (04:52):
Due to the House defection of Matt Gates, Republicans have
an extremely slim two nineteen to two point fifteen majority
to work within as the process kicks off on Friday.
That means there can be only one Republican defector in
the House Speaker vote. If all Democrats are unified against
the Geope nominee, which is likely if you're the Democrats.

(05:13):
Given their situation in the upcoming Congress, this is all
they could ever hope for. Dysfunction on the Republican side
so they can't get their act together, so that it
is unlikely the Democrats are going to join Republicans to kind.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Of bail out this situation.

Speaker 1 (05:31):
They'd like to see Republicans and just kind of do
themselves in. So this might be a holiday week for many, However,
it is a huge newsweek for what will be in
Congress when it convenes on Friday, independent of other things,