North Carolina Rep. Mark Meadows (left) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) now find themselves in frequent contact with their Republican leadership after years of leading internal rebellions atop the House Freedom Caucus. | J. Scott Applewhite/AP Photo Congress Freedom Caucus plots with GOP leaders to cause Dem misery The conservative hard-liners are teaming up with House Republican leadership in a bid to climb out of the minority in 2020.

The House Freedom Caucus was created to make life hell for the majority. Now, it’s the Democrats’ turn to suffer.

After last fall’s 40-seat electoral disaster, the conservative hard-liners have agreed to a cease-fire with their long-suffering GOP leadership as they work together to try to crush Democrats at the polls next year.


Now in place of coup attempts, the Freedom Caucus is schooling House GOP leaders in the same rebellious tactics that conservatives once deployed against their own party.

“You're in the minority — your choice is either swim together or sink together,” said Rep. Mark Walker, vice chairman of the House Republican Conference. “Next thing, they’ll be having drinks together.”

The first display of the GOP’s new strategy came this week, as members of the Freedom Caucus halted floor action for hours to protest a Democratic measure denouncing shutdowns.

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But this time, they did it with Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s blessing.

McCarthy (R-Calif.) and Freedom Caucus chief Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) have begun to jointly plot their attack lines and political stunts, just two months after the conservative group sought to oust him from the top Republican spot.

The House GOP will have no real power to defeat Democratic legislation this year. At most, Republicans can be a nuisance with delay tactics — a role that the Freedom Caucus has been perfecting for nearly five years. But with the GOP coalescing around the bomb-throwers’ playbook, it will pose a new test for Democrats now running the House.

“I can come up with all kinds of creative ways to slow down the floor progress. Those creative ways are being used in a unified way in the minority,” Meadows said. Being in the minority means zero control over legislation, of course. “But you still have a plethora of options in the toolbox,” Meadows said.

House GOP leaders may regret choosing such a path.

The Freedom Caucus was widely blamed for egging on President Donald Trump to shut down the government last month. That shutdown eventually became the longest in history only for it to end with a Trump cave — further evidence that the Freedom Caucus can start a fight, but not end it, and that Republicans could stumble by embracing their most hard-edged members.

Meadows, along with Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, now find themselves in frequent contact with leadership after years of leading internal rebellions. And this time, GOP leaders are no longer wishing they could silence their right flank.

McCarthy and his deputies are looking to borrow from Jordan’s aggressive style, with the Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney reaching out to coordinate attacks amid a likely onslaught of Democratic investigations into Trump.

“I got along with them beforehand,” McCarthy said of his relationship with the Freedom Caucus, although he acknowledged “probably not the leaders of it.”

“You need the conference to work as one. You work as one, we’re stronger,” McCarthy added. “I feel we’re very unified.”

Meadows agreed, saying he has a "good" relationship with McCarthy and added that he's not surprised the party is embracing his hard-line tactics.

The Freedom Caucus, which has never existed in the minority, has found itself with more seats at the GOP’s table after last fall’s Democratic romp and as its leaders have gotten close to Trump.

Jordan now attends McCarthy’s weekly leadership meetings because he has a coveted slot on the House Oversight Committee — which McCarthy himself helped secure. In the wake of last fall’s leadership contest, the California Republican made sure Jordan — one of Trump’s fiercest attack dogs — got the post.

The Oversight committee is expected to be a battleground where anti-Trump forces take on the president’s loyalists. The Freedom Caucus will have an outsized role, with their members making up more than half of the panel’s GOP roster.

Another member of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.), now leads the Republican Policy Committee — the group’s first official leadership slot.

The informal — and likely temporary — truce between GOP leaders and the Freedom Caucus is not entirely surprising after the party faced a historic drubbing at the polls in November.

“I think in the minority you find less things that you’re against, and you find more things that you’re for,” said Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), who led the protest votes on the floor.

But some Republicans believe that the House GOP is naturally becoming more cohesive after the 2018 elections badly diminished the GOP’s moderate wing, giving further rise to the ultraconservatives.

Former House Speaker John Boehner, who was effectively forced out by the Freedom Caucus in 2015, delivered a stern warning this week about the conservative group’s clout and explicitly blamed them for the shutdown.

"When I was looking for legislative strategy, the last place I looked was talk radio. The second last place I looked was the knucklehead caucus, who don't know how to vote yes on anything. They did the president a total disservice,” Boehner said at a gathering of Florida Republicans.

In the Trump era, House GOP leaders have made an effort to give the Freedom Caucus more of a voice. Minority Whip Steve Scalise, for example, added several members to his whip team. GOP leaders also sent fundraising help to Virginia Republican Dave Brat, who was defeated in November, and Scalise himself will fundraise for Jordan in several weeks.

At one point on Thursday, McCarthy, Jordan and Meadows were the only three Republican lawmakers in the chamber. McCarthy took the floor — which was being managed by Jordan and Meadows — to deliver a fiery speech against the Democratic agenda. In dramatic fashion, he read aloud the names of 50 people who had been killed by people living in the U.S. illegally.

Walking off the floor, Jordan volunteered a glowing endorsement of McCarthy’s theatrics.

“I think his speech was really good,” Jordan said. I thought that was very well done.”