The House Freedom Caucus has a reputation for wreaking havoc. But the far-right group is falling flat in Donald Trump’s Washington.
Just a few recent examples:
– This week, Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) — an HFC member next in line to chair the Homeland Security Committee — was passed over for leadership in favor of ally Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), seventh in seniority on the panel.
– Last week, HFC lawmakers tried to block a procedural vote on crypto legislation, a maneuver that resulted in a 10-hour standoff with GOP leaders and a multi-day mess on the floor. But the package passed with the group getting little in return.
– And everyone remembers how the Freedom Caucus threatened to tank the massive GOP reconciliation bill, only to fold and fall in line in the end, all by Trump’s July 4th deadline.
After ultimately succumbing to Trump and House GOP leaders on every bill they vowed to oppose – including voting multiple times to raise the debt limit by trillions of dollars – the HFC is in danger of becoming the caucus that cried wolf.
“They’re delusional,” Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) told us. “The drama that comes from a small group of Republicans voting procedurally with the Democratic Party is costing us valuable time and creating resentment in the conference.”
That was then. Last Congress, the HFC used its leverage to secure seats on plum committees and dictate the legislative agenda. But with Trump demanding total Republican loyalty – and getting it – the group no longer has the sway it once had.
The question is what does this mean moving forward for the House Republican Conference – held hostage by Freedom Caucus mayhem for the last decade-plus – and the hardline group?
“They’ve done a good job of slowing things down in the House,” Rep. Troy Downing (R-Mont.) said. “There’s a whole lot of noise there and they’re not getting a lot of changes.”
The Trump factor. Trump has criticized the HFC for causing him problems, going as far as to demand in December that someone primary Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), the group’s second highest-ranking member. Roy made a lot of noise before key reconciliation votes, but he eventually fell in line like the rest of the HFC.
After the HFC members held up the crypto vote, Trump said he was “tired of making phone calls” in the early morning to the same dozen members.
Yet in conversations with more than a half-dozen HFC members, many in the group remain confident of their standing with Trump. These hardliners also believe they’re making legislation better.
“Our relationship with Trump is great,” Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris (R-Md.) said.
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) acknowledged there’s sometimes tension between HFC and the White House. But at the end of the day, Tiffany said, Trump wants people around him who can tell it to him straight and are dialed into the GOP base.
“You need people who are going to tell you the truth,” Tiffany said. “There’s frustration at times when we’re herding cats in this building and they just want to get to yes, but that’s not how we operate.”
