‘What’s going on with this place?’: GOP faces a House in chaos

The Rotunda of the US Capitol Building on October 14, 2025. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

House Speaker Mike Johnson already had one of the toughest jobs in Washington: controlling an unruly GOP conference, with its razor-thin majority on the line next November.

Now, with tensions sharply rising inside the Capitol over party infighting and a new focus on partisan floor attacks, it’s about to get worse.

When the House returns from its Thanksgiving recess, the GOP speaker will face a chamber in chaos. He and his team have struggled to maintain control of the floor in recent weeks, as made clear by the recent unsanctioned push from rank-and-file members to release the Jeffrey Epstein files . But that’s not the end of it: Members of both parties are increasingly feeling emboldened to buc