{"id":2224579,"date":"2024-04-18T18:26:02","date_gmt":"2024-04-18T22:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-turn-on-one-another-as-they-debate-throwing-johnson-over-the-ledge\/"},"modified":"2024-04-18T18:29:53","modified_gmt":"2024-04-18T22:29:53","slug":"house-republicans-turn-on-one-another-as-they-debate-throwing-johnson-over-the-ledge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/house-republicans-turn-on-one-another-as-they-debate-throwing-johnson-over-the-ledge\/","title":{"rendered":"House Republicans are at odds, debating the idea of ousting Johnson"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhouse-republicans-turn-on-one-another-as-they-debate-throwing-johnson-over-the-ledge%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2224579&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>House Republicans are in turmoil over foreign aid and \u200da potential motion to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson. Tensions rise\u200b as clashes within the party escalate, \u200cculminating in public confrontations and accusations. The debate intensifies amid disagreements on\u200c governance and strategy, showcasing\u200b deep divisions within the Republican conference. House \u2063Republicans are \u2064facing internal turmoil regarding foreign aid and the possibility of ousting House \u200cSpeaker Mike Johnson. escalating tensions within\u200b the \u200bparty lead to public \u200cconfrontations and accusations, highlighting significant divisions within the Republican conference on \u2063governance\u200d and strategy.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>While this year has proven to be a tumultuous time in Congress, <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/congress\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>House Republicans<\/a> find themselves face to face with yet another chaotic showdown this week as the conference fractures over <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/foreign-aid\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>foreign aid <\/a>and a possible motion to vacate House Speaker <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/mike-johnson\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Mike Johnson<\/a> (R-LA).<\/p>\n<p>The release of Johnson\u2019s four-pronged foreign aid plan combined with Rep. <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/marjorie-taylor-greene\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/a>\u2019s (R-GA) motion to vacate has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/tens-of-thousands-join-monday-marches-against-lockdown-in-germany\/\" title=\"Tens of Thousands Join Monday Marches Against Lockdown in Germany\">tensions running high<\/a> on Capitol Hill, resulting in louder and more public displays of infighting as the House GOP seeks a path forward without relying on <a href=\"http:\/\/washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/democrats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Democrats<\/a> to bail them out.<\/p>\n<p>The Republican conference has been plagued by months of discourse, but it\u2019s come to a head over the last few weeks during <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/2964090\/house-passes-fisa-renewal-capping-months-of-gop-infighting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"battles over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act\">battles over the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act<\/a> and now the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/2969225\/house-gop-releases-ukraine-israel-aid-plan-with-separate-bill-border-crisis\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-border-crisis-helps-sink-israel-and-ukraine-aid-washington-photos-of-the-week\/\" title=\"Biden's border crisis impacts Israel and Ukraine aid: Washington Week in Photos\">foreign aid legislation<\/a><\/a> to Ukraine, Israel, and other nations. <\/p>\n<p>House Freedom Caucus members and their hard-right allies are on one side of the battle, calling on Johnson to call Democrats\u2019 bluff and force them to move on border security. Members who typically get along with the hard-line caucus are reaching their limit, accusing their colleagues of caring more about fundraising and social media hits than governing.<\/p>\n<p>Emotions ran high on Thursday when Reps. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) got into a heated argument on the House floor that resulted in name-calling. Several members confirmed to the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> that Johnson was meeting with House Freedom Caucus members and other hard-line GOP members, including Gaetz, when Van Orden came up to the group. <\/p>\n<p>Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN), who is not a member of the Freedom Caucus, told reporters that Johnson and the initial group of members were not discussing a motion to vacate the chair and instead were talking about policy decisions on Ukraine and Israel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cByron [Donalds] and Matt [Gaetz] were making perfectly good sense, and then someone came in later and blew it up,\u201d Burchett said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s just, people are frustrated and tired, and they\u2019re wanting \u2014 you know, we\u2019re conservative \u2014 and nobody in that group, the original group, until the latecomer came in, said anything about vacating the chair,\u201d Burchett added. \u201cThat wasn\u2019t, you know, it wasn\u2019t really the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That \u201csomeone\u201d turned out to be Van Orden, who said in an interview with the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em> that he saw Johnson having a \u201cvigorous debate\u201d with members and went over to defend Johnson. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd Navy SEALS, and which I am a retired one, we never go anywhere without a swim buddy. And the speaker of the House didn\u2019t have a swim buddy,\u201d Van Orden said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that though he has deep respect for several of the House Freedom Caucus members present at the discussion \u2014 such as Reps. Byron Donalds (R-FL), Clay Higgins (R-LA), and Eli Crane (R-AZ) \u2014 he did not believe Gaetz was speaking to Johnson in a way that \u201ccomported with decorum.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>During the exchange between Van Orden and Gaetz, the Florida congressman called Van Orden a \u201csquish\u201d, prompting the Wisconsin Republican to respond with, \u201cKick rocks, tubby.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd this is why: You have to push back at bullies. Matt Gaetz is a bully. Chip Roy is a bully. Bob Good is a bully. And we can\u2019t govern with bullies,\u201d Van Orden said. \u201cWe can\u2019t allow bullies to hold the sword of Damocles over the speaker of the House.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Following the incident, Gaetz spoke to reporters outside the Capitol, saying Van Orden had been pushing for a motion to vacate and filing it in a privileged way. A spokesperson with Van Orden\u2019s office told the <em>Washington Examiner that <\/em>Van Orden told a few of the members to stop with the threats of a motion to vacate and that they should either \u201cfile it or shut up about it.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only thing I gleaned from it is that Mr. Van Orden is not a particularly intelligent individual,\u201d Gaetz said of the conversation.<\/p>\n<h2>Foreign aid legislation rule spells ousting for Johnson<\/h2>\n<p>While Gaetz and Van Orden were arguing on the chamber floor, the House Rules Committee convened to deliberate over how to advance a procedural vote on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/senate-gop-pushes-back-on-democrats-criticism-amid-border-talks-stalemate\/\" title=\"Senate Republicans respond to Democrats' criticism amidst border talks deadlock\">foreign aid bills<\/a> to the floor, particularly after three <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/rural-lawmakers-urge-swift-reauthorization-of-farm-bill-amid-revolt-from-gop-hard-liners\/\" title=\"Rural lawmakers push for quick farm bill reauthorization despite GOP hard-liners' revolt.\">hard-line conservatives threatened<\/a> to vote \u201cno\u201d on the rule. <\/p>\n<p>Reps. Ralph Norman (R-SC), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Chip Roy (R-TX) almost immediately came out in opposition to Johnson\u2019s bill and met with him on Wednesday to voice concerns. <\/p>\n<p>Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY), a vulnerable House Republican, called on the three members <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/lawler4ny\/status\/1780765564702531787\">to resign<\/a> from the Rules Committee or be removed by the speaker. Van Orden also agreed they should be removed, adding that he circulated a rule last night detailing that if a GOP member votes against a rule, they should be stripped of all committee assignments.<\/p>\n<p>Others have come out against the Republicans looking to hold up the rule vote, arguing it goes against the goals of the party to \u201cdecentralize the power.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat\u2019s not being fair is when we\u2019re constantly taking down the rule, that\u2019s showing that your vote is more important,\u201d House Republican Conference Vice Chairman Blake Moore (R-UT) said on Thursday. \u201cYour 750,000 people in X district is more important than the 750,000 people that live in the first district of Utah. That\u2019s the part that\u2019s fundamentally unfair.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Another source of infighting comes from the idea that Johnson may rely on Democratic votes to pass the rule vote and pass the legislation. Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) said on Thursday that Johnson continues to \u201cdiminish and weaken himself\u201d by passing legislation with predominantly Democratic votes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s going to happen: We\u2019re going to vote against the rule, he\u2019s going to have as many Democrats as he needs baked into the cake to support the rule, I suspect, and that\u2019s bad for the American people,\u201d Good told reporters.<\/p>\n<p>Van Orden, however, disagreed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn a calendar, put your finger on the date when bipartisanship became bad. When did bipartisanship become bad? When? I don\u2019t think it has,\u201d Van Orden said. \u201cSo let\u2019s quit pretending like if some Democrats come to their senses and vote for some of our bills, then let\u2019s quit pretending like it\u2019s a bad thing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, there\u2019s a growing number of House Republicans who are pursuing a rules change to increase the threshold required to vacate a speaker, which is being led by Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD). At least a dozen lawmakers have expressed support for that change, a source familiar told the <em>Washington Examiner. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cAgain, we\u2019ve got a small group of people who are upset that they\u2019re not getting their way. It\u2019s the era of divided government. Nobody gets everything they want,\u201d Dusty Johnson said in a video. \u201cThey want to throw out the current speaker of the House. It\u2019s a terrible idea. I\u2019m working with a group of members to change the rules so they can\u2019t get that done. So that one knucklehead can\u2019t put the whole House into disarray by forcing another speaker vote.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The details of such a rule change are not yet clear. Under current House rules, any one member can file a motion to vacate and force a vote on whether to oust the speaker. That rule was agreed to by former Speaker Kevin McCarthy in order to garner enough support to secure the gavel himself \u2014 before being ousted just nine months later. <\/p>\n<p>At least two House Republicans have come out publicly to support Dusty Johnson\u2019s proposal, arguing the one-member threshold has weakened the GOP majority. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen the Dems had the majority, their \u2018motion to vacate\u2019 the Speaker rule required the majority of the majority, which was 124 sponsors,\u201d Bacon said in a post on X. \u201cIn Jan 2023, we changed the rule to require only one sponsor. This has weakened our majority and Congress as a whole. It is time to fix.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Van Orden said he \u201cabsolutely\u201d supports changing the threshold and has been involved in those conversations with other members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a terrible tactical error to agree to lowering that threshold to one,\u201d the Wisconsin Republican said. \u201cThe reason being that gave anybody the ability to exercise coercion over the speaker of the House. And that is not how you govern, and that never should have passed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that he\u2019s \u201cnot surprised\u201d Democrats want to raise the threshold and that he is tired of a small coalition of conservatives being \u201cdestructors\u201d and not \u201cdisruptors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a difference between a disrupter and a destructor. We need disruption around here; we need to shake the tree. But we don\u2019t need to burn the tree down or cut it down,\u201d Van Orden said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what a select few members of the Freedom Caucus have been doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s time to shake this tree, and you know who needs to fall out of it? A couple members of the Freedom Caucus,\u201d the congressman added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This year\u2019s turmoil in Congress continues for House Republicans as they clash over foreign aid and a potential motion to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA). The division deepens as Johnson\u2019s foreign aid proposal is scrutinized<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2930,"featured_media":2224580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24108806021575-1024x683.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2224579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/wex-s3.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/AP24108806021575-1024x683.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2930"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2224579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2224579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2224580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2224579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2224579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2224579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}