Republicans Grapple With the Risk of Overreach
The GOP launched the 115th Congress with an embarrassing misstep on ethics.
“Let us not be timid,” Paul Ryan exhorted members of the House on Tuesday, moments after 239 Republicans had, in near-unanimous fashion, re-elected him as speaker. He was girding his party for what he called “the opportunity of a lifetime”—the chance to remake Washington under President-elect Donald Trump and unified Republican control of government.
Ryan needn’t have worried about his members’ gumption: They had committed their first act of political overreach before the 115th Congress was even sworn in.
The night before, a majority of House Republicans to gut the from Trump, Republican lawmakers hastily reconvened barely five minutes before the 115th Congress gaveled into session.
