Some in House GOP protest leadership during speaker nomination, Trump visit

The House Freedom Caucus was said to have plans to protest GOP leadership, a.k.a. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), as members voted on their nomination for Speaker for the next session, and President-elect Donald Trump visited on Wednesday.

The move caused tensions with the rank and file of the party, one of whom called it "just more stupid" on Tuesday.

Some of the protests were around rumored new rules that could punish party members who block their own party's legislation, as some in the Freedom Caucus have previously done.

Johnson has said he will not support such punitive rules, but even that did not completely satisfy dissenters.

"There's a difference between saying, ‘I don't support it’ and ‘I'm going to stop it.’ That's a big difference," one source said. "His easy route is just to say, ‘All right, no rules changes. We're just going to go forward.’"

The Freedom Caucus had been searching for someone to challenge Johnson, but no candidate emerged. House Republicans are expected to narrowly retain their majority for the next two years, even with some races not yet decided.