Mike Johnson: ‘Leaders have to take responsibility when things go wrong’

In his first interview since the midterm elections, the US House speaker, Mike Johnson, said that the Republican party’s crushing losses during the 3 November elections prompted his decision to step away from party leadership.

“Leaders have to take responsibility when things go wrong,” Johnson said on Fox News on Saturday.

The Republican leader, who informed aides on 4 November that he would not seek re-election for House leadership, said on Saturday that he reached the decision “pretty quickly after election night”.

“We worked around the clock, left it all on the field to win. We had to defy history, as you and I both know, it’s only happened twice in 90 years, but we did everything that we could to make that happen,” Johnson said. “But, you know, this was the a year where history was not defied …

“We don’t like the results,” he said. “But, real leadership, I’ve always believed, you lead from the front, and leaders have to take responsibility when things go wrong whether it’s individually deserved or not, that’s part of it …

“I’m going to remain in this fight, but from a role different than as minority leader in the next Congress,” he added.

Johnson’s decision came after Republicans suffered historic losses in this year’s midterm elections, with Democrats flipping key seats in Republican strongholds, including Texas, to seize control of both the Senate and House. It stood in sharp contrast to the reaction of Donald Trump, who has deflected all responsibility for the devastating losses suffered by his party, including defeats for at least 10 Republican Senate candidates in states where he held rallies in the closing weeks of the campaign. That number could rise to 11, should Alaska’s incumbent Republican senator, Dan Sullivan, be defeated.

As it stands, come 3 January, Democrats will have at least 55 seats in the Senate, and Republicans will have 44. In the House, Democrats will have at least 256 seats, while Republicans will have at least 169. Each party leads in four of the eight House races where votes are still being counted, and the final two seats will be determined in runoff elections next month in Louisiana. The Senate race in Alaska has not yet been called.

On Tuesday, House Republicans elected the congressman Jim Jordan, of Ohio, to replace Johnson next year, when Republicans will be the minority party in both chambers of Congress. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, re-elected the senator John Thune, of South Dakota, to continue as their leader.

Democrats have not yet voted on who will lead their party in the House and Senate when the new Congress convenes in January. The representative Hakeem Jeffries, of New York, currently serves as House minority leader for the Democrats, and is expected to become the nation’s first Black speaker of the House, while the senator Chuck Schumer, also of New York, currently leads Senate Democrats.

However, the contest for Senate leadership has intensified in recent days, after Chris Van Hollen, of Maryland, announced a challenge to Schumer for the position.

“In this election, the American people called for change. They called for a change from Donald Trump’s disastrous policies – but even bigger than that, a change from the status quo that isn’t working for working people,” Van Hollen said. “It’s now on us to meet this moment, and to do that we need new leadership. This is not about any one person – it’s about answering the call of the American people. That is why I’m running for Senate Majority leader.”

Bernie Sanders, the progressive senator from Vermont, said this week that he would not support Schumer’s bid to serve as the Democratic leader in the Senate, saying that “the time is now for change”. Sanders then endorsed Van Hollen and outlined the stakes of that contest in a Guardian opinion article.

Senate Democrats are scheduled to hold a closed-door vote on 1 December.

Currently, Jeffries does not face a challenger, but he has faced resistance from some members of his party, including from several Democrats elected earlier this month.