April 16 (UPI) — U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie on Tuesday became the second House Republican to join in Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s effort to oust Speaker Mike Johnson.
On Tuesday, Massie, a Kentucky Republican, during a closed-door meeting of a GOP conference of House members, said he will publicly back Greene’s motion to vacate in the effort to remove Johnson from the speakership.
“The motion is going to get called, OK? Does anybody doubt that? The motion will get called,” Massie said after Tuesday’s conference meeting with his congressional colleagues.
But it remains unclear when a vote may be triggered on Greene’s resolution to vacate Johnson’s chair in the 435-member legislative body.
“And then he’s gonna lose more votes than Kevin McCarthy. And I have told him this in private, like weeks ago,” Massie said Tuesday on the threat to remove Johnson.
It is likely that Johnson will need the support of House Democrats — if it gets put up for a floor vote — to keep his job in order to avoid the chaos of last October that saw the ouster of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and Johnson’s eventual election as a relative “dark horse” for the position.
Some Democrats have indicated their willingness to help Johnson keep the speakership under certain pretexts or conditions, including aid for Ukraine.
The House controlled by the Louisiana Republican can only afford the loss of two GOP lawmakers on a party-line vote. But that will lower to one after Wisconsin Republican Mike Gallagher leaves the House later in the week.
Massie told reporters Tuesday that his decision to side with Greene was precipitated — among other reasons including over the House’ recent FISA reauthorization — because of the speaker’s Monday announcement the day prior that the narrowly held Republican House will vote this week on two separate aid packages for Israel and Ukraine, in response to what Johnson called “precipitating events around the globe.”
He also called on Johnson to resign from his post, to which the speaker called “absurd,” according to sources inside the closed-door meeting.
Two Pennsylvania Republicans seemed conflicted on the situation after the meeting amid no clear indicator as to who would replace Johnson should the effort to remove him be successful.
Rep. Dan Meuser, R-Pa., who briefly put his name up for speaker during last October’s election won by Johnson, called Greene’s motion “dead wrong.” And when proded if he will join the effort to oust Johnson, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa. and the former chair of the former House Freedom Caucus chair, noted how he hasn’t “said anything about it.”
But Perry added that “there’s always an alternative” to Johnson as speaker within the House GOP ranks. And he also reiterated Massie’s concern over Johnson’s willingness to join Democrats in providing foreign aid, saying “I don’t think it helps.”
On Tuesday, Johnson’s fellow Republican lawmaker from Louisiana, Garrett Graves, said he believes Greene’s resolution would fail if placed on the floor for a vote,” saying “It’s not in our interest to do it.”
He noted the “painful scars” of the last speakership imbroglio that lasted weeks and that it is still “fresh in people’s minds” and could be “a major disincentive for folks to actually pull the trigger on a motion to vacate.”
“You have a loose affiliated coalition government at this point, you’re not going to get a majority of votes for any new person,” he told reporters.
“And for that reason, I don’t think that folks are going to go through with it at this point,” he said.
Ohio Republican Jim Jordan — House Freedom Caucus co-founder who also was up for speaker in the race with Johnson — dismissed calls to take out Johnson over foreign aid packages, calling it “a bad idea.”
“We don’t need that, no way. We don’t want that,” he said. “We shouldn’t go through that again.”
