Republicans may be on the brink of getting rid of another House speaker.
At least, that’s what it looks like to Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky.
Axios reported Tuesday that Massie joined Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene of Georgia as the second House Republican to call for House Speaker Mike Johnson’s ouster.
The conservative congressman expressed his desire to remove Johnson to members of the Republican conference, saying a motion to vacate would be put to the floor if the speaker did not step down.
Two members of the Republican conference told Axios that Massie’s comments were met with boos from a majority of the conference.
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Axios also reported that some Democrats have indicated they will “bail Johnson out” on the floor so that Congress does not have a repeat of the motion to vacate in October, which resulted in the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Massie discussed his position with reporters, citing Johnson’s support for massive spending bills, warrantless spying and billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine as reasons he should be removed.
“There’s only one person right now who could stop us from going into what happened last fall, and that’s Mike Johnson,” he said, referring to McCarthy’s ouster.
“He’s cleaning the barn, that’s obvious,” Massie said of the speaker. “He had three things to do: He wanted to do an omnibus that broke all the spending records, he wanted to do FISA without warrants, now he wants to do Ukraine. Those are the three things.
Do you support a motion to vacate?
“There are people riding him like a horse here. They don’t care when the horse collapses. I do, because it’s gonna throw our conference into turmoil.”
While the Kentucky Republican indicated he would not put forth the motion himself, he expressed that such a motion likely would result in Johnson’s ouster.
“If it is called, there will be a lot of people who vote for it,” he said.
.@RepThomasMassie on Speaker Johnson, resignation and motion to vacate the chair: “I asked him to resign…the motion is going to get called and then he’s going to lose more votes than Kevin McCarthy.” pic.twitter.com/c2v6VK3kh6
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 16, 2024
Reporters questioned Massie on how such a motion would be beneficial to the country. He responded by saying Johnson has been more conciliatory to the policy interests of the Democrats rather than trying to get our nation back on track.
“If the country likes [Democratic Senate Leader] Chuck Schumer, then they should like what Speaker Johnson’s accomplished in the House,” the congressman said.
Massie is known for his opposition to foreign aid, believing that such spending is detrimental to our country’s future. The House is set to vote this week on two bills that will send billions of dollars in aid to both Ukraine and Israel.
To avoid the chaos of October, Massie suggested that Johnson should follow in former Speaker John Boehner’s footsteps, giving Republicans time to find a suitable replacement and then stepping down once the replacement has been agreed on.
And when reporters asked him if the speaker could get back in his good graces and retain the gavel, Massie said, “Regardless of what I want, [the motion] is going to happen. And when it does happen, it’s going to pass. The motion to vacate will pass.”
He was referring to the ability of any single member of the House to call a vote of no confidence in the speaker, a measure to which McCarthy agreed as a concession to hold-out Republicans in January 2023.
Because of the rule, Republicans could be in for another battle for the gavel mere months after Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida led an effort to oust McCarthy.
Speaker Johnson has led the GOP to pass:
1) an omnibus that spends more than Pelosi’s highest year
2) an expansion of the domestic warrantless surveillance program
and this week he’s pushing
3) Schumer’s dream bill which contains $100 billion of foreign aid, mostly for war.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 16, 2024
I just told Mike Johnson in conference that I’m cosponsoring the Motion to Vacate that was introduced by @RepMTG.
He should pre-announce his resignation (as Boehner did), so we can pick a new Speaker without ever being without a GOP Speaker.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 16, 2024
While no one wants a repeat of October, Massie’s concerns are not without warrant.
He is correct in challenging Johnson’s policy decisions. Bending to Democrats and pursuing billions of dollars in endless spending and aid to Ukraine is not what Republican members had in mind when they elected Johnson.
On the flip side, another speakership battle would damage the public’s confidence in the GOP’s ability to lead the House, which could spell trouble for Republicans in November.
Since returning to power in 2022, Republicans have spent more time fighting among themselves than they have pursuing policies to rebuild our nation.
And even if Johnson were ousted, it’s unclear who would take his place or if his or her leadership would be any better. After all, Republicans went through three candidates in October before landing on Johnson, and he still can’t seem to make the conference happy.
Moreover, it’s a bad precedent to oust a speaker every few months.
So, is Massie right that Johnson needs to do more to stand up to Democrats and get spending under control so that our nation can finally start to rebuild from the failures of President Joe Biden’s economic policies? Yes.
But is the solution to get rid of Johnson and hope the next person will be better?
For now, that remains unclear.
