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Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is facing renewed motion to vacate threats a day after he introduced a plan to pass foreign aid.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., threatened to force a vote to oust the speaker during remarks in House Republicans’ closed-door conference meeting on Tuesday morning, if the speaker did not willingly step aside first. He’s the second conservative to do so after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., filed a motion to vacate against Johnson last month.
“I asked him to resign…he said he would not,” Massie told reporters after the meeting. “And I said, well, you’re the one who’s going to put us into this because the motion is going to get called, OK? The motion will get called.”
Massie took it a step further and said Johnson would lose more GOP support than the eight House Republicans who voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last year.
Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a new threat to oust him from Rep. Thomas Massie (Getty Images)
Asked about the chaos wrought in October during the race to replace McCarthy, Massie said, “We ended up with some guy nobody in America ever heard of.”
A defiant Johnson said at his weekly press conference afterward, “I am not resigning.”
“It is, in my view an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion. We’re simply here trying to do our job. It is not helpful,” Johnson said. “It is not helping the House Republicans advance our agenda, which is in the best interest of the American people.”
Massie is among the conservatives pushing back against Johnson’s plan for aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, which was announced Monday night and is already facing pushback from members on the right over its lack of border security provisions. He predicted that the proposal would not even pass its initial procedural hurdle on the House floor, a chamber-wide rule vote.
“I’m the canary in the coal mine. This rule’s dead on arrival,” Massie said.
I WANT MY MTV (MOTION TO VACATE): SPEAKER JOHNSON FACES POTENTIAL THREAT WHEN CONGRESS RETURNS
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed the motion to vacate last month. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, file)
A GOP lawmaker who was present at the meeting said Massie told Johnson that he should “just get all this legislation out of the way and then announce he’s not going to stay speaker.”
Asked if Massie was serious about trying to oust Johnson, the GOP lawmaker said, “I’ve never found him as someone who is not serious.”
A second GOP lawmaker said Johnson responded to Massie with some form of “Bring it on” challenge – and noted that McCarthy made similar comments when presented with a leadership fight.
“My experience has been so far, don’t do that,” the second GOP lawmaker said.
While no House Republicans leaving the Tuesday morning meeting said they would back Massie’s effort, they were divided on whether his accusations had any merit.
Ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted late last year. (Nathan Howard/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I think if the speaker ignores the obvious desire of the conference to include border control [in the foreign aid plan], and I think a lot of people who want part of this to be paid for, I think he ignores that at his own risk,” House Freedom Caucus member Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., told Fox News Digital.
Meanwhile, Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital of Massie’s threat, “I think it’s ridiculous. Speaker Johnson is doing the best job that he can with a divided conference. I think it’s about time we come together.”
Massie said he would sign onto Greene’s existing resolution to vacate Johnson. But unless they file it as a privileged motion, as was the case with McCarthy, there is nothing compelling House Republican leadership to hold a vote.
Elizabeth Elkind is a politics reporter for Fox News Digital leading coverage of the House of Representatives. Previous digital bylines seen at Daily Mail and CBS News.
Follow on Twitter at @liz_elkind and send tips to elizabeth.elkind@fox.com
