GOP hardliners are incensed over rumors that Johnson is considering trying to raise the one-vote threshold for a motion to remove the speaker.
House speaker Mike Johnson’s political future hangs in the balance as he moves forward with his plan to push billions in foreign aid through the lower chamber. The move may cost him his speakership.
Tensions flared on Capitol Hill Thursday morning after Johnson (R., La.) trudged forward with his plan to hold votes on separate bills to fund Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. This prompted stiff resistance from GOP hardliners who are publicly bashing Republican House leaders ahead of an expected vote on Saturday.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.), who is sponsoring a motion to vacate the speakership along with Representative Thomas Massie (R., Ky.), has spent the entire week accusing Johnson of prioritizing foreign aid to Ukraine and other foreign nations over American needs. She has yet to force a vote on her motion, which she filed against Johnson last month.
President Joe Biden endorsed Johnson’s foreign-aid package Wednesday, only further weakening Johnson’s standing among his rightmost flank. The House Freedom Caucus sent a memo to Republican offices urging members to oppose the rule on the foreign-aid package over concerns that it mirrors the $95 billion Senate-passed supplemental and prioritizes Ukraine over efforts to secure the southern border.
Former president Donald Trump, the GOP’s 2024 nominee, released what seemed to be a deliberately ambiguous statement on the package, calling out Europe for not doing more to help Ukraine financially while notably declining to endorse or whip members against Johnson’s bill.
“Why isn’t Europe giving more money to help Ukraine?” Trump asked in a Truth Social post. “Why is it that the United States is over $100 Billion Dollars into the Ukraine War more than Europe, and we have an Ocean between us as separation! Why can’t Europe equalize or match the money put in by the United States of America in order to help a Country in desperate need?”
Pushback from Greene and other isolationist-leaning House Republicans grew even louder Thursday afternoon following reports this morning that Johnson and his aides were actively considering amending the rule to raise the current motion-to-vacate above its current one-person threshold.
“If he wants to change the motion to vacate, he needs to come before the Republican conference that elected him and tell us up his intentions and tell us what this little change to the motion to vacate is going to be,” Greene told reporters on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Thursday afternoon.
Hours later, Johnson caved to his rightmost flank and clarified in a social-media post he had decided against the move.
“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,” the speaker said in a statement. “We will continue to govern under the existing rules.”
Johnson’s decision to pass on amending the rule may soon lead to his undoing. Ex-speaker Kevin McCarthy agreed to that one-person snap vote threshold back in January 2023 as part of a back-room deal to secure the speaker’s gavel — an agreement that ended up laying the groundwork for his ouster and now imperils the political fate of his successor just six months into his term.
Johnson forcefully defended the nearly $61 billion in Ukraine aid on Wednesday, despite the ouster threat. “My philosophy is you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may. If I operated out of fear of a motion to vacate, I would never be able to do my job,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
If the package passes Congress and is signed into law, Israel and Taiwan will receive $26 billion and $8 billion, respectively.
The speaker also indicated the legislative package will be coupled with a revised TikTok divestment bill, a move that will increase the legislation’s chances of passage in the House.
Under the new proposal, the China-based ByteDance will be forced to sell TikTok to a U.S. owner within nine months of the legislation going into law; otherwise, TikTok will be banned from 170 million U.S. users. Previously, the deadline was six months after the House passed the TikTok sale-or-ban bill last month. The legislation has yet to be considered on the Senate floor.
Senator Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.), who heads the Senate Commerce Committee, was pleased with House leadership extending the sale period and said she supported the revised language. She previously recommended that Johnson and other House leaders extend the divestment period from six months to a year.
“Extending the divestment period is necessary to ensure there is enough time for a new buyer to get a deal done,” Cantwell said in a statement on Wednesday.
Conversely, TikTok blasted the House for combining the divestment legislation with the three separate bills for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan.
“It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill,” said a TikTok spokesman.
This post has been updated.