House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) says he has no plans to resign amid increased criticism from his House Republican conference.
“I am not resigning,” Mr. Johnson said defiantly during an April 16 House leadership press conference.
Mr. Johnson’s comments come after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a critic of foreign aid, said he would co-sponsor Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) motion to vacate against the speaker.
“I just told Mike Johnson in conference that I’m cosponsoring the motion to vacate that was introduced by [Greene],” Mr. Massie wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
Mr. Massie recommended that Mr. Johnson “pre-announce his resignation,” similar to the move undertaken by former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in 2015.
Mr. Massie’s position came after Mr. Johnson announced on April 15 that he would advance four foreign aid and geopolitical security packages through the House, to be merged into a single package and sent to the Senate.
“It is in my view an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion,” Mr. Johnson said when asked about Mr. Massie’s call that he resign the top spot in the House.
“We are simply here trying to do our jobs. It is not helpful to the cause and it is not helpful to the country.”
Such a move “does not help the House Republicans advance our agenda, which is in the best interest of the American people,” Mr. Johnson said.
Specifically, Mr. Johnson said that Republicans are in an “existential” struggle against Democrats who “envision that America should be remade in the form of some sort of European style socialist utopia.”
Instead of trying to oust him, Mr. Johnson said that Republicans’ attention should be focused entirely on the upcoming election, including expanding the GOP House majority, reclaiming the Senate, and putting former President Donald Trump back in the White House.
“We have to have our members work together,” he said.
He noted that he had received moral support a few days earlier from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who said “this is the hardest challenge that’s faced a speaker probably in the history of the country.”
Mr. Massie’s warning that he’ll join Ms. Greene’s effort to oust him is an ominous development for Mr. Johnson.
Currently, Republicans can spare only two votes—a number that will soon fall to one when Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) resigns later this week.
With those margins, Mr. Massie and Ms. Greene could easily succeed in their effort to oust a second speaker unless Democrats come to Mr. Johnson’s rescue.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) has suggested this could happen.
During a press conference last week, Mr. Jeffries said: “If the speaker will do the right thing and allow the House to have an up or down vote on the national security bill, I believe that there are a reasonable number of Democrats who would not want to see the speaker fall.”
Several Democrats, including former House Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), have said that they would protect Mr. Johnson if instructed to do so by Mr. Jeffries.
While the text of Mr. Johnson’s foreign aid bills has not been released, some conservatives have already pushed back against the idea, particularly taking issue with funding for Ukraine.
Ms. Greene (R-Ga.), an outspoken opponent of additional funding for Ukraine, said on April 15 that she was “firmly against the plan.”
“This is such a scam and people are so done with it,” she told reporters after a closed-door conference when the plan was announced.
Meanwhile, House Democrats have tentatively signaled they would back the plan.
“The important point is the substance of the legislation. The substance matters,” Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chairman of the Democratic Caucus, told reporters on April 16.
The White House also suggested that it would back Mr. Johnson’s plan, one day after saying it opposes any stand-alone Israel-funding bill.
“The important thing is that our allies like Ukraine and Israel who are under the gun, literally under the gun, get the security assistance they need as soon as possible. So we want them to move this week,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on April 16.
“It does appear at first blush that the Speaker’s proposal will in fact help us get aid to Ukraine, aid to Israel and needed resources to the Indo-Pacific for a wide range of contingencies there. At first blush it looks like that, we just want to get more details,” he added.
From The Epoch Times
