Some Republicans Indicate Their Desire to Remove Speaker Johnson

Conservative hardliners staged a rebellion on the House floor Wednesday over Speaker Mike Johnson’s spending deal with Senate Democrats, a sign that Johnson’s time at the helm could be short, Axios reported.

The resistance comes six months after some House Republicans sabotaged a procedural vote in a bid for payback over former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s bipartisan agreement with President Joe Biden to pass a bill raising the debt ceiling.

Johnson, who was elected as speaker in October, was the fourth Republican nominee in what had become a cycle of political infighting since McCarthy’s ouster.

“He should have never been hired,” Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, said of Johnson on Wednesday after a House GOP conference meeting about the topline spending deal. “Before we could even get together, he announced the terms of the surrender.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., added: “We need more communication in our conference. Mike Johnson doesn’t work for [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer and the White House. He needs to work with our conference on deals that he’s making.”

Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., defended Johnson.

“We’re in a divided government. Anyone who thinks we are going to get more out of this deal is lying and they’re kidding themselves,” Lawler said. “The speaker did the best he could under the circumstances and, frankly, our hand was weakened by the eight nitwits who removed Speaker McCarthy.”

During a Fox News appearance Wednesday, Johnson said he didn’t think he was “in any jeopardy” of being removed.