Though many hoped he would do a better job at fighting for the concerns of the GOP base than former Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy, current Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has proven something of a disappointment to the GOP’s MAGA base. Particularly, his decision to go ahead with a budget deal rather than wielding a potential shutdown to stop Ukraine funding and achieve border security concessions infuriated Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Now, Rep. Bacon says Speaker Johnson could be ousted.
Such is what Rep. Don Bacon of Nebraska said when speaking to NBC News’s Kristen Welker during a Sunday, March 31 appearance on “Meet the Press.” During the appearance, he said that if Speaker Johnson decides to hold a vote on aid for the Ukrainian state and war effort, that could result in his removal at the hands of some of the party’s firebrands.
Speaking on the matter, Rep. Bacon noted that the House Republicans will have a mere one-seat majority when Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin resigns, meaning that it will be difficult for the GOP to keep Speaker Johnson in power if a few people in the GOP’s tenous majority decide they want to torpedo his speakership. He said such is possible, as there are “one or two people that are not team players” in the House GOP.
His comments on the matter came when Welker asked him what effect a vote on aid for Ukraine could have on Speaker Johnson. She asked, “Let me ask you about the speaker of the House, because you know that some Republicans oppose him putting, a Ukraine aid bill on the floor. Do you think he could lose his speakership over this, Congressman?”
Responding, Rep. Bacon told her that Speaker Johnson losing his job over such a vote is a possibility given the composition of the House GOP Caucus and its razor-thin majority. He said, “It’s possible. I’m not going to deny it. We have 1 or 2 people that are not team. They’re not team players. They they rather enjoy the limelight, the social media. And the fact is, with a one seat majority and we’ll end up with a 3 or 4 seat majority after some special elections…It’s a very narrow majority.”
Continuing, he said that those couple of malcontents, by whom he presumably meant Rep. Gaetz, Rep. Green, and Rep. Boevert, are willing to sink things if they think the House is doing anything wrong. “And 1 or 2 people can make us a minority. And I both of you, you work with a team. I don’t have to get 100%, 80% as the Ronald Reagan rule. But we have some people that if they don’t get 100%, they want to bring the House down,” he said.
He added that such a situation makes it hard for the House to function, saying, “And it makes us dysfunctional. And so that’s a possibility. I do think there will be Democrats, though, who do not want to see this dysfunction, and I think they’ll probably vote present or maybe not be there for a vote. But it is very likely that after this Ukraine bill, we may have a standoff with the speaker. I hope the speaker prevails. He’s doing the right thing. It’s in our national security interest that Ukraine remain independent.”
Watch them here:
Featured image credit: By Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America – Mike Johnson, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=139920652
"*" indicates required fields