Mike Johnson retains speakership as GOP holdouts flip votes

Reps. Ralph Norman and Keith Self initially voted against Speaker Mike Johnson during a key vote on Friday but then flipped to support him shortly after.

What happened in between the two votes?

It's being reported that the two lawmakers each received phone calls from President-elect Donald Trump and made their decision to flip and support Johnson shortly after.

Self confirmed that he spoke to Trump multiple times, calling the conversations "lively."

"We have got to make sure this Congress is as strong as possible when we go up against the Senate on the reconciliation package, because there are debates on what the reconciliation package even looks like. So that's all I wanted to do today, is to make this Congress successful for the Trump agenda," Self said.

Norman said that he changed his mind and decided to support Johnson because "Mike gave us the assurance that he was going to fight for everything as it moves forward."

The congressman confirmed that he had spoken with Trump after he was also connected by South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace and said that the call went "very well."

"He just made a point about how Mike's the only one who can get elected, that he's likable — which I knew," Norman said about his call with Trump. "We just impressed on Mike the seriousness of what he's about to do. Is he gonna fight for financial stops? Is he gonna fight? And that was our whole question. Trump was helpful, but I knew where Trump stood."