Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky predicted Tuesday that a motion to vacate targeting House Speaker Mike Johnson would succeed with a higher number of defections than one that toppled then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia filed a motion to vacate the chair on March 22 after a $1.2 trillion spending bill passed the House of Representatives. Massie, a libertarian-leaning member of the House Republicans, told a press gaggle that he had requested Johnson’s resignation.
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“The motion is going to get called and then he is going to lose more votes than Kevin McCarthy,” Massie said, referring to the 216-210 vote that resulted in McCarthy’s Oct. 3 ouster and the lengthy search process that eventually settled on Johnson. “And I have told him this in private weeks ago.”
Massie said he had asked for Johnson’s resignation in a meeting shortly before the press gaggle that was posted to X by CSPAN.
“I will not call the motion to vacate, but I will tell you that if it is called, there will be a lot of people who vote for it,” Massie said.
Johnson discussed plans to separate out a series of foreign aid bills for Ukraine, Israel and other countries earlier Tuesday, saying that “the will of the House” was to debate each piece of legislation separately. Some Republicans have pushed back over the foreign aid funding, particularly with regard to Ukraine, accusing the Biden administration of ignoring Americans.
The Senate passed legislation combining the aid by a 70-29 vote early Feb. 13, following a Republican filibuster.
The White House rejected an earlier proposal from Johnson to tie Ukraine aid to a reversal of a ban on liquified natural gas exports.
“I don’t spend my time worrying about motions to vacate,” Johnson told CNN. “We’re having to govern here and we’re going to do our job.”
Johnson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
