House Speaker Mike Johnson conceded Thursday that he doesn’t have the votes needed to defang a possible motion to oust him from power after tensions flared with GOP hardliners on the chamber floor.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and several of his allies confronted Johnson (R-La.) over murmurs the speaker and his moderate Republican allies were trying to increase the threshold of support needed to bring forth a motion to vacate.
Gaetz, 41, subsequently blasted Johnson for “equivocating” about whether he’d back such an effort.
“Since the beginning of the 118th Congress, the House rule allowing a Motion to Vacate from a single member has harmed this office and our House majority,” Johnson, 52, posted on X Thursday evening.
“Recently, many members have encouraged me to endorse a new rule to raise this threshold. While I understand the importance of that idea, any rule change requires a majority of the full House, which we do not have.
“We will continue to govern under the existing rules.”
Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) agreed to lower the threshold to furnish a motion to vacate to one vote, something that ultimately spelled doom for his speakership.
Last month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced a motion to vacate against Johnson, but it was not privileged, and therefore, did not trigger an automatic vote. She has been coy about whether she will actually bring forward a privileged motion.
This week, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced he would co-sponsor Greene’s measure. Republican hardliners have railed against the speaker for rolling out plans to pass a $60.8 billion Ukraine aid bill, raising the specter of a second mutiny in fewer than seven months.
Most House Republicans fear that a motion to vacate would plunge the lower chamber into total disarray.
Greene said Thursday that prospect is not her concern.
“I don’t care if the speaker’s office becomes a revolving door,” she told Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast Thursday.
“If that’s exactly what needs to happen, then let it be. But the days are over of the old Republican Party, that wants to fund foreign wars and murder people in foreign lands, while they stab the American people in their face.”
Gaetz, who spearheaded the revolt against McCarthy, maintained that “a motion to vacate is something that could put the conference in peril” but insisted his fellow rabble-rousers “are not going to surrender that accountability tool.”
During the confrontation on the House floor, Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wis.) called Gaetz “tubby” and repeatedly goaded him to bring up a motion to vacate.
“He just got up in my face, and I’m not gonna be intimidated by that guy,” Van Orden told a Fox News reporter afterward.
Gaetz later chastised Van Orden, saying the congressman is “not a particularly intelligent individual.”
The Floridian later trolled Johnson, posting: “The Motion to Vacate was built for speed, not comfort, Mr. Speaker.”
“The real damage happening to our conference and our country is that our elected Republican Speaker is supporting Biden and the Democrat’s agenda and not fighting for our Republican agenda,” Greene chided Johnson. “Stop making excuses and blaming others.”
The House currently has 218 Republicans and 213 Democrats, meaning Johnson can only lose two votes and pass resolutions and legislation along party lines.
Numerous Democrats have dropped hints that they may rescue Johnson in the event of a mutiny, after 208 of them joined with eight Republican rebels to vote McCarthy out Oct. 3.
In the face of those threats, Johnson insists that he will not retreat on the foreign aid bills, and plans to move ahead with a scheduled vote Saturday evening.
“My philosophy is you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may,” he told reporters Wednesday. “If I operated out of fear of a motion to vacate, I would never be able to do my job.”