White House Offers Reassurances on National Security Amid Speaker Fight

State Department voiced concern over delay in choosing new Speaker of the House

National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby speaks during the daily briefing in the James S Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on Nov. 28, 2022. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)

One day after a State Department spokesperson warned that the ongoing Speaker of the House battle could eventually raise concerns related to the United States’ national security, a White House spokesperson offered a less alarming narrative.

“I don’t want to speculate about how long things would go before there would be some deeper concern about national security implications,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on Jan. 6.

“We’re confident that we can continue to defend the United States of America while House Republicans are working through this process,” he continued, adding that there are “vehicles in place” for national security-related communications between the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price had said Jan. 5 that the grinding dispute over this Congress’s speakership could prove problematic from a national security perspective.

“The U.S. Congress has indispensable functions when it comes to America’s foreign policy. There’s an important oversight role. There’s an important authorization role. There’s an important appropriations role. There’s an important voice to be had when it comes to the direction of American foreign policy,” he said during a press briefing.

U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price listens as U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken speaks during a press conference in Bangkok on July 10, 2022. (Stefani Reynolds/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

A reporter asked Price about delays in national security briefings of House members while the Speaker fight continues.

Members must be sworn in to receive the security screening necessary for those briefings—but they cannot be sworn in until a Speaker is chosen.

“The first few days of any congressional term usually is spent on procedural elements like this, but of course, if this continues on, there will be additional concerns. I’m sure we will hear additional concerns from the Hill as well,” Price said.

He later added that keeping Congress abreast of national security issues is “much more difficult” while the House is not yet seated.

Republican allies of speaker hopeful Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) have voiced worry over the national security threat of a continued delay in choosing a Speaker, in line with concerns expressed by House Democrats like former CIA officer Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.)

“The Biden administration is going unchecked and there is no oversight of the White House, State Department, Department of Defense, or the intelligence community. We cannot let personal politics place the safety and security of the United States at risk,” wrote House Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), House Armed Services Committee ranking member Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ranking member Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), who are expected to lead those key national security committees in the new Congress, in a Jan 5 press release.

“A handful of Members are holding us hostage from doing our job and putting our national security at risk!” wrote Rep. Donald Bacon (R-Neb.) in a Jan. 5 tweet.

Bloomberg reported on Jan. 6 that McCarthy’s deal to become speaker could involve a $75 billion cut to defense spending. The move, which could appeal to more dovish Democrats, has already drawn backlash from Republican hawks such as former Wyoming congresswoman Liz Cheney.

“China and Russia are watching. If @GOPLeader [McCarthy] agreed to weaken our national defense for his own personal gain, that will be his legacy, and our nation will suffer,” Cheney wrote on Twitter.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) campaigns with Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) at an Evening for Patriotism and Bipartisanship event in East Lansing, Mich., on Nov. 1, 2022. (Bill Pugliano/Getty Images)

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper did not indicate that the prospect of such a deal concerned her during a Jan. 6 press briefing.

“We have enjoyed tremendous bipartisan support for Ukraine security assistance, and while I certainly would imagine that the details of that assistance will evolve over time, I still would anticipate strong support from the U.S. Congress,” she said.

The contest for Speaker of the House hasn’t taken more than one round of votes since 1923, and it hasn’t involved this many rounds since the nineteenth century.

The most protracted battle came in 1856, when Congress took 133 ballots over two months to elect Nathaniel Prentiss Banks to the position.

State Department Versus White House in History

The White House and the State Department haven’t always seen eye to eye in recent presidential administrations.

As president, Donald Trump was repeatedly frustrated by leaks from agencies nominally under his control, including the State Department. One internal State Department memo on the hazard of leaks was itself leaked to the press.

During the twilight of the Cold War, President Ronald Reagan famously clashed with his State Department over the famous speech he delivered at Brandenburg Gate in 1987, within sight of the Berlin Wall.

President Ronald Reagan addresses the people of West Berlin at the base of the Brandenburg Gate on June 12, 1987. "Tear down this wall!" was the famous command Reagan to Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. The address is considered by many to have affirmed the beginning of the end of the Cold War and the fall of communism. (MIKE SARGENT/AFP via Getty Images)

Speechwriter Peter Robinson, now a Hoover Institution fellow, recalled in 2007 the lengthy process of approving the address’s most famous line–“Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

“With three weeks to go before it was delivered, the speech was circulated to the State Department and the National Security Council. Both attempted to squelch it,” he wrote for the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration’s Prologue magazine.

According to Robinson, Reagan ultimately resolved to deliver the famous line while driving to the wall, telling aide Ken Duberstein that “the boys at State are going to kill me, but it’s the right thing to do.”