Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) may be skating on thin ice as he is reportedly mulling a potential change to the motion to vacate rule in the House of Representatives.
The Republican leader has denied that he may be considering altering the current rule but efforts are reportedly ramping up to remove him if he pushes ahead with passing a foreign aid package through the House in the coming days which includes the change.
“Johnson is reportedly flirting with a proposal to raise the threshold for forcing a vote on a motion to vacate, which can currently be called by a single lawmaker. That would reverse an agreement that former GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) cut with conservatives in January of last year as a condition of gaining their support for his Speakership,” The Hill reported.
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.
Recently, many members have encouraged me to endorse a new rule to raise this threshold. While I understand the importance of…
— Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) April 18, 2024
“It’s a red line for me, for sure,” Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) said to reporters after a contentious meeting of conservative lawmakers with Johnson “that featured plenty of yelling,” according to The Hill.
While Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), who was behind the effort to oust former GOP leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), was not solidly behind removing Johnson over the potential rule change, he did indicate that he was “not going to surrender” on key issues.
“I think a motion to vacate is something that could put the conference in peril, and Ms. Boebert and I were working to avoid that,” Gaetz said. “Our goal is to avoid a motion to vacate. But we are not going to surrender that accountability tool, particularly in a time when we are seeing America’s interests subjugated to foreign interests abroad.”
News — Matt Gaetz tells us he engaged in a ‘tense’ conversation with Johnson, who didn’t rule out changing motion to vacate now in upcoming rule
(Also got into it with Rep. Van Orden who was daring them to move ahead with vacate vote – which Gaetz doesn’t support w Johnson) pic.twitter.com/VyBdpSlN9y
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 18, 2024
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has been a vocal critic of Johnson’s decisions and his seeming support of many Democrat agenda items. She has been threatening to file a motion to vacate and his latest attempts to sweeten a Senate-passed foreign aid package for the GOP caucus has her fired up.
“He’s serving Ukraine first and America last, and that would be the worst thing to do,” Greene said. “I can’t think of a worse betrayal ever to happen in United States history. And here’s what’s really ironic: the constitutional attorney, Mike Johnson, is literally betraying the American people in order to keep his grip of power on the Speakership.”
Mike Johnson is working behind the scenes with Democrats to save his speakership.
He owes our entire conference a meeting explaining his plans to change the rules WITH DEMOCRAT HELP on Motion to Vacate.
I filed a Motion to Vacate because Johnson has became the Democrat Speaker… pic.twitter.com/gjsLGhKmkh
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 18, 2024
“If Mike Johnson goes in there and attaches to the rule — and the Rules Committee is meeting right now, so we’ll see when that vote takes place — if he attaches a rule to change the motion to vacate and then uses Democrat votes on the Rules Committee, he’s going to prove exactly what I’ve been saying correct,” Greene told reporters on the Capitol steps.
