GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna says Speaker Johnson ‘held hostage’ by far-right members over remote voting fight

GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who left the House Freedom Caucus over its opposition to her push for remote voting for new parents, accused some members of the conservative group of holding Speaker Mike Johnson “hostage” over the matter and acting “disingenuous.”

GOP Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, who left the House Freedom Caucus over its opposition to her push for remote voting for new parents, accused some members of the conservative group of holding Speaker Mike Johnson “hostage” over the matter and acting “disingenuous.” “The speaker is being held hostage,” Luna told CNN’s Manu Raju Monday evening. “You had members — a small group of the Freedom Caucus, not all of them but a small group — that threatened to shut down the House floor regardless of what agenda was being placed, whether it was the president’s or not and that’s not right.” “There are some great people that are still members of the Freedom Caucus, but there’s a small faction that’s disingenuous and I’m not going to play that game,” she said. Luna, along with Democratic Rep. Brittany Pettersen, are trying to force a change to House rules to allow new parents – mothers as well as fathers – to vote by proxy for up to 12 weeks around the birth of a baby. The issue has opened up a rift within among House Republicans with Republican leaders arguing it’s unconstitutional and a slippery slope. Luna has been pushing for a vote using a relatively uncommon procedural method known as a discharge petition, which allows rank-and-file lawmakers to force measures to the floor if they can get 217 other members to support it.