LIVE: House Republicans Are Holding Leadership Elections For The 119th Congress

At approximately 5:57, Rep. Ronny Jackson told the pool that the reaction to Gaetz news inside the closed-door conference was mixed but that he was happy to hear it. 

“[Gaetz] is going to go into this with an attitude that he’s going to clean up in, particularly the FBI but also a lot of the stuff in DOJ, which I think we were desperate and needed to have,” the Texas Republican said. “So I think if you want to pick an agent of change, you really couldn’t pick anybody that’s a bigger agent of change, especially when it comes to DOJ and the FBI than Matt Gaetz.”

But he added that Senate confirmation is not a guarantee. “We’ll have to see. I’m sure he’s gonna have a lot of work ahead of him.”

At approximately 5:00 pm, Rep. Michael Guest, the GOP chair for the House Ethics Committee, told the pool that Gaetz nomination does not change the panel’s ongoing probe but if Gaetz is confirmed for the cabinet position, the committee will no longer have jurisdiction to continue its probe or release its report.

“Once we lose jurisdiction, there would not be a report that would be issued,” Guest said. “That’s not unique to this case, we have that every new Congress, where there are members who are under ethics investigation, who either choose not to run again, in some instances, or they resign or they lose reelection.”

He added, “We’re not going to rush this investigation because of the appointment. And so we’re going to again follow the rules and the procedures that we set in place.”

At approximately 4:30 pm, GOP Rep. Max Miller told reporters that the shock from some in the conference when the Gaetz news broke was more about members being happy that the Florida Republican will no longer be a member of the chamber.

For years, Gaetz has been deemed an instigator of interparty battles, culminating in his successful effort to remove then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from the dais last year.

He said the House would be a more functional place when he’s gone.

Trump started his speech by going through the victory Republicans had up and down the ballot, from battleground states to the shift in margins in solidly blue states.

He thanked everyone and talked about the House margins. He called the 2024 election the most important election in 129 years. 

‘We won all seven swing states by a lot,’ he said adding that he almost won New Jersey.

“I suspect I won’t be running again unless you say he’s good we got to figure something else,” Trump said to the crowd who laughed in response.

Elon Musk was seated in the first row. Boris Epshteyn was in the back.

The press was ushered into a crowded lobby where people were waiting to catch sight of Trump. Speaker Mike Johnson was speaking and talked about Trump’s victory.