Fear of Trump’s wrath ripples through House GOP

By Annie Grayer, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump faced Republican defections on a series of split votes this week, but his willingness to call out members of his own party convinced some wavering lawmakers to stay in line.

On Thursday, Trump was quick to say five Republican senators should not be reelected to Congress after they voted with Democrats to advance an effort to limit future US military force in Venezuela without congressional approval.

Hours later, House Republicans were faced with an opportunity to override the first presidential vetoes of Trump’s second term. The stark example of the president’s readiness to target members of his party led some GOP lawmakers who were debating voting to override the vetoes on a pair of relatively noncontroversial bills not to, multiple sources told CNN.

Nothing had changed about the substance of the bipartisan bills, except now the votes would be viewed as bucking Trump.

“Members who would normally be supportive of other member initiatives have to balance not stepping out of line with the White House,” one of the GOP lawmakers who was considering voting to override but ultimately didn’t told CNN. “Not much room for independence.”

Another GOP lawmaker who spoke with colleagues considering the veto override saw the decision of some of those colleagues as “not wanting to poke the bear.”

Trump’s reflex to use his powerful microphone to target politicians in his own party is not a new phenomenon, and it still did not deter some Republicans from voting in opposition to the president. But, with an increasingly narrow House Republican majority in an election year, it has the potential to play an outsized role. A member could be one phone call or Truth Social post away from being singled out by the president, and that carries extra weight with members eager not to draw a primary challenge or open themselves up to new attacks as Election Day draws closer.

Over the summer when Republicans were working to pass Trump’s domestic agenda, House Speaker Mike Johnson regularly tapped the president to convince holdouts to get on board with the legislation. Countless times, House floor votes were held open so Trump could directly negotiate with GOP lawmakers, and in the immediate days leading up to the final vote, Trump met directly with various lawmakers.

Now, with lawmakers confronting what to do about Americans facing rising health care costs after enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits expired, Trump has so far taken a much more back seat approach, telling House Republicans on Tuesday it was up to them to “figure it out.” Trump’s mixed messaging on health care gave 17 Republicans more breathing room to buck their party’s leadership and join Democrats in voting to restore enhanced Obamacare subsidies on Thursday.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told CNN after the vote that he understood each lawmaker has to vote their conscience but wished those 17 lawmakers hadn’t rebuffed him.

Many of those Republicans are running in competitive races for reelection and are walking a tight rope of trying to balance their need to get ahead of attacks from their Democratic opponents over the rising cost of health care with their support for the president.

On the balancing act that those lawmakers face, one GOP lawmaker warned: “If you’re going to stick your neck out on this and that but then you want to turn around and beg for an endorsement?”

But GOP lawmakers have predicted once Trump does decide to get involved and point his party in a specific direction on health care, most in the party will fall in line.

“If the president makes something a priority, that has an impact on the process,” GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley of California told CNN.

Another GOP lawmaker described House GOP leadership trying to fill the vacuum left by Trump on health care as a “disaster,” adding that “every member is left to fend for themselves.”

Still, some Republicans, particularly those who are retiring, don’t view Trump as a determining factor for how they approach a given issue.

Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon was considering whether Congress should limit future US military force in Venezuela without congressional approval, until Trump lashed out against the five Republican senators who voted with Democrats.

That helped make up his mind, he said, to support a similar war powers resolution when it comes up in the House.

“It emboldens me,” Bacon told CNN on Friday. “Being bullied by the president doesn’t help. It doesn’t help with me. Other people it may, but not me.”

Bacon, who is retiring from Congress at the end of his term, is one of the few Republicans who regularly speaks out against the president.

“You got to respect people’s decisions on those kinds of things, right? You really do. Some of the comments he made I think drove them to that decision,” Washington state Rep. Dan Newhouse, who is also retiring from Congress and is part of the small group willing to rebuke Trump, told CNN.

Meanwhile, Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, who is often in public opposition to Trump, says it’s no coincidence that the president continues to target him.

“I think he’s attacking me to keep the rest of these guys in line,” Massie said. “I think he’s just trying to drive home to them that, ‘Hey, if you don’t stay in line, I’ll give you the Massie treatment.’”

It’s not a coincidence for Massie then that many of his Republican colleagues decided not to override Trump’s veto.

“I do think there was some bully pulpit intimidation going on there,” he said.

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