Rep. Thomas Massie has become the first Republican lawmaker to co-sponsor Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's motion to vacate, which would remove Speaker Mike Johnson from the position.
After announcing his position, Rep. Massie posted on X urging Speaker Johnson to resign willingly.
"He should pre-announce his resignation (as Boehner did), so we can pick a new Speaker without ever being without a GOP Speaker," Massie wrote. I just told Mike Johnson in conference that I’m cosponsoring the Motion to Vacate that was introduced by @RepMTG.
He should pre-announce his resignation (as Boehner did), so we can pick a new Speaker without ever being without a GOP Speaker.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 16, 2024
Massie responded to a question about Johnson's response, saying he refused to do so. He said he won’t resign. I said to him that he is the only one who can prevent us from going through what happened last fall.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 16, 2024
Johnson called the resignation request "absurd" while speaking to reporters.
“I am not resigning and it is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply here trying to do our jobs,” Johnson said during a press conference. “It is not helpful to the cause, it is not helpful to the country, it does not help the House Republicans advance our agenda which is in the best interest of the American people here — a secure border, sound governance — and it’s not helpful to the unity that we have in the body.”
Massie has long been considered one of Washington, DC's toughest fighters against reckless spending. In a post on X, he cited multiple complaints about Johnson, mostly centered around his extreme expenditures. Speaker Johnson has led the GOP to pass:
1) an omnibus that spends more than Pelosi’s highest year
2) an expansion of the domestic warrantless surveillance program
and this week he’s pushing
3) Schumer’s dream bill which contains $100 billion of foreign aid, mostly for war.
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) April 16, 2024
The Hill reports, "Massie’s announcement came less than 24 hours after Johnson unveiled the outline of a plan to move foreign aid through the House, which includes voting on three separate bills to send assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan and a fourth measure that pertains to other national security priorities."
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Massie said, "There’s only one person right now who could stop us from going into what happened last fall, and that’s Mike Johnson," referring to the lengthy process of ousting and replacing former Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
“He’s cleaning the barn, that’s obvious,” Massie continued. “He had three things to do: He wanted to do an omnibus that broke all the spending records, he wanted to do FISA without warrants, now he wants to do Ukraine. Those are the three things. There are people riding him like a horse here; they don’t care when the horse collapses — I do, because it’s gonna throw our conference into turmoil.”
