Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar became the third House member to join the movement to depose Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday, according to a news release from the lawmaker.
The other two co-sponsors of the move to vacate the speakership, Republican Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene and Thomas Massie, were gathered on the House floor earlier in the day with Gosar.
They haven’t done anything to bring the resolution to a vote on the floor. Greene will have to wait until Saturday to attempt to remove Johnson from office because the House adjourned for the remainder of the day on Friday afternoon.
The House must examine Greene’s crucial step within two legislative days. This means that the leadership has the option to wait until after the weeklong recess to address it on the floor. To remove Johnson from office, a simple majority vote is needed.
Some conservative members have criticized the speaker for depending on Democrats to pass foreign aid bills, which are among their grievances with the speaker.
House Rules Committee member and prominent conservative Rep. Chip Roy blasted Johnson of letting the Republicans exploit their leverage on border security. But he was mum on whether he would back the speaker’s removal.
“I’m not getting into that right now,” he stated. However, when asked if actions to remove the speaker would harm the House GOP conference, he responded, “I mean, it’s bad for our party not to lead,” while bemoaning the GOP’s lack of action about border security.
On Friday, other conservatives inside the GOP were likewise furious.
Defending him at this moment is difficult. Even if it’s difficult to admit, that is the truth, as Rep. Eli Crane put it.
Even though he voted to remove Kevin McCarthy as speaker last autumn, the Republican from Arizona has not ruled out backing attempts to remove Johnson.
My stance is that I am available, but I will not reveal my plans to you. We’ll have to wait and watch if that happens or if something triggers this. While he acknowledged that it was not beyond his control, he expressed his frustration, echoing that of many in the audience and the American people.
“He is aware of my level of frustration. The issue is much larger than Speaker Mike Johnson, the move to vacate, or myself, therefore I will try my best to approach it politely, but I will not back down. “In my view, the question lies in whether we will endeavor to rescue our nation or perpetuate the Washington uniparty’s pattern of betraying the American people.”
Rep. Dan Bishop directed his anger at the whole leadership of the House GOP Conference, describing their behavior as “pathetic.”
The speaker has regrettably caved to the power structures inside the Republican Conference, but my point is that they consistently ignore the concerns of Americans on the center-right when making policy decisions. Absolutely not. And here we are yet again; it’s pitiful, he remarked.
Bishop has made it plain that, at least for the time being, he does not favor ousting Johnson from his position as speaker. “I don’t see any particular advantage in solving the problem I just described by moving against the speaker at this time,” the North Carolina Republican added.
Johnson’s speakership has been under increasing scrutiny due to his stance on the bill to provide international assistance to Israel and Ukraine, prompting Gosar to take action.
The threat reached its peak on Thursday when HEADLINESFOREVER and other news outlets reported that Johnson’s members were trying to convince him to raise the bar for triggering the process to remove the speaker. If Johnson were to do this, the Republican from Louisiana could pass foreign aid bills without Democrats having to rescue him, which would be a huge win for the GOP.
Several far-right MPs engaged in a heated exchange with the speaker on Thursday on the House floor. Many politicians were irate, and some even claimed this was a breaking point that may lead to the removal of Johnson from office, because the group begged Johnson to promise that he would not raise the threshold for the motion to vacate, but the speaker refused to pledge.
Later that day, in response to that pressure, Johnson stated that he would not alter the process for removing him from the speakership.
Notable conservative MPs joined Bishop in postponing support for Johnson’s removal as speaker until after the November election.
In an interview with HEADLINESFOREVER’s Manu Raju, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Bob Good said that Johnson “has failed us” and harshly attacked his management of the foreign aid bills. However, Good did say that he is against the idea of removing Johnson from office before the November election.
I believe this was a disastrous error; I am not defending the speaker’s performance or the previous actions, including today’s. That said, it in no way implies that I am in favor of what I would deem to be an impractical course of action at this time. There are six months to go until the election, and our margin of victory is two or three votes. According to him, the level of uncertainty in that circumstance is far higher now compared to September.
Hardline Republican Rep. Ralph Norman voiced his agreement that Johnson should remain speaker until the election and expressed his hope that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene would reconsider her attempt to remove her.
There will be an election in seven months. We will await the outcome of the speaker election after we have, hopefully, a new president. And I’m not sure Mike is doing what he believes is best in his mind after all this — he’s been through a lot. You won’t hear me belittling them. “I won’t criticize him; I just disagree with him,” Norman declared.