House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted Tuesday that he will not give up his gavel after a second member of his Republican conference called for his ouster, joining in a revolt by Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Rep. Thomas Massie, an iconoclastic right-wing hardliner from Kentucky, confronted Johnson at a private meeting of GOP members Tuesday morning — reportedly telling him, “you’re not going to be speaker much longer” — and then publicly announced that he would co-sponsor Greene’s “motion to vacate” the speakership and called on Johnson to step down so that Republicans could have an easier time choosing his replacement.
"I am not resigning,” the speaker told reporters Tuesday morning, adding that he thinks it is “an absurd notion” that someone would try to remove him. “It is not helpful to the cause. It is not helpful to the country. It has not helped the House Republicans advance our agenda.”
Massie’s move came after Johnson on Monday unveiled a plan to move ahead on a long-stalled foreign aid package by bringing up four separate bills covering assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan along with other Republican foreign policy priorities, including turning some aid into loans, using seized Russian assets to help Ukraine, and requiring TikTok to be sold.
With many House Republicans opposed to providing further funding for Ukraine, Johnson has long resisted allowing a vote on a bipartisan $95 billion foreign aid plan passed by the Senate in February. But Iran’s attack on Israel over the weekend intensified the pressure on Johnson to push ahead with an aid plan, even if it threatened to trigger a Republican uprising and renewed House chaos. Greene has threatened to force a vote to remove Johnson if he puts forth a Ukraine aid bill.
Johnson is in a no-win situation politically. Splitting the aid into individual bills appeases some Republicans, but still leaves him vulnerable to angry conservatives while also raising uncertainty about the ultimate passage of each bill. The White House came out against separating the aid bills and President Joe Biden reportedly questioned the speaker’s strategy during a call Monday night. Johnson insisted that the House would have trouble with the Senate-passed bill and that his approach was “the only way forward,” according to Politico.
What’s next: It’s not clear when Greene will move to force a vote on Johnson’s job, but if or when she does, the speaker will likely need to rely on Democrats to help him keep his gavel. Many Republicans continue to support Johnson and oppose the idea of ousting him over the aid plan, but others could join Greene and Massie.
“The motion is going to get called, okay? Does anybody doubt that? The motion will get called, and then he’s going to lose more votes than Kevin McCarthy. And I have told him this in private, like weeks ago,” Massie said after the GOP meeting.
As for the aid package, Johnson’s plan is likely to lead to House votes on Friday, though lawmakers had been scheduled to leave the capital Thursday afternoon and be in recess next week. The first test will be getting the bills through the Rules Committee. Democratic votes may not be needed to clear that step but will more than likely be needed to get the bills through on the House floor, including procedural votes. “The text of the plan has not been released, so House Democrats are still weighing whether to bail out Johnson – or stand up against it and pressure Republicans to instead take up the $95 billion Senate package that Johnson has sidelined for two months,” CNN reports.
The bottom line: Johnson’s survival may now depend on Democrats. Johnson told reporters Tuesday that he knew when he took the job that it would not be easy and that he considers himself a wartime speaker. The war isn’t just in Ukraine or Israel. It’s within his own party as well.
