Exclusive–Massie: Speaker Johnson ‘Not Equipped for This Job’; Calls for Boehner-Type Resignation While GOP Picks New Speaker

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) told Sirius XM’s Breitbart News Daily that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is “not equipped” for the speakership and laid out a scenario he would like to see, where Johnson would agree to resign upon the GOP conference coming to a consensus on a successor.      

Massie joined Breitbart News Daily host Mike Slater on Wednesday, a day after he asked Johnson to resign and became a cosponsor of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-GA) motion to vacate. The motion is not privileged, but Greene could make it privileged at any time and force the House to consider it within two days.

When Slater asked what the problems with Johnson as speaker are, Massie contended, “He’s just not equipped for this job,” before saying Johnson consistently gets rolled by Democrats in negotiations.

“Every negotiation he’s gone into with Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden, he’s received nothing in exchange. He’s either not good at negotiating, or he’s negotiating for their side,” Massie said.

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“He’s done an omnibus that broke Nancy Pelosi’s spending records. He reauthorized FISA without warrants. Now he’s going for the trifecta to pass the Ukraine spending without doing anything to enforce our border,” he continued. “That will be three strikes in addition to just the poor management of the House.”

Notably, Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Scott Perry (R-PA) expressed dissatisfaction with the foreign aid framework on Wednesday, which neglects United States border security. Banks called it “insanity.”

Over 3x as much $$ for Ukraine as Israel. Zero $$$ to secure our own border. Insanity. https://t.co/6Uaq0Ax1OI

— Jim Banks (@Jim_Banks) April 16, 2024

Massie laid out how his and Greene’s motion to vacate against Johnson differs from the motion that Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and seven other Republicans used to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) in October.

He and Greene want Johnson to agree to resign once the conference can come to a consensus on a new speaker. This would prevent a period of chaos similar to speakerless weeks in the House after McCarthy was vacated with what is now an even thinner, one-seat majority.

“We don’t want to have a chance of having Hakeem Jeffries as speaker,” Massie emphasized. “We would like to continue doing subpoenas and hearings and passing bills, even though they may go nowhere in the Senate, and we’d like to still have a speaker in that chair.”

“The way to do that is if Mike Johnson would announce his resignation eight weeks from now… or at a point when we are able in our conference behind closed doors, not out on the floor with Democrats who can gum up the works, but in the Republican conference as soon as we’re able to elect our nominee unanimously, Mike Johnson would then resign,” he added.

Massie added that the scenario would mirror former Speaker John Boehner’s (R-OH) resignation in 2015, which occurred in the face of a motion to vacate.

“There’s a precedent for this. This is what John Boehner did when John Boehner decided he was going to clean the barn and screw over conservatives and our base by reauthorizing Ex-Im Bank and passing an omnibus,” Massie recalled. “He said, ‘I’m going to resign after I do all these bad things, and I’ll give you time to elect a new speaker.’ That’s what Mike Johnson should do, and that’s why I cosponsored Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate.”

Meanwhile, Massie says he and Greene “would love to get some more cosponsors,” estimating that if they reach about five or six members behind the motion, “it should be obvious to Mr. Johnson that he needs to resign.”