Mike Johnson is on thin ice
Speaker Mike Johnson is beset with political challenges: At least two conservative lawmakers have begun threatening his job. The former acting speaker trashed Johnson’s performance this week. A border-policy showdown with the Senate and White House draws nearer every day.
And then there’s the problem of the 2024 campaign.
A growing number of House Republicans are increasingly frustrated with Johnson’s leadership and whispering about whether he can hang on to his role after 2024 — if he even makes it that far.
Despite serving barely three months as speaker, the Louisianan is already facing an immediate threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who is openly disparaging him and suggesting she may try to boot him from the speakership.
“I don’t think he’s safe right now,” Greene said, adding: “The only reason he’s speaker is because our conference is so desperate.”
Few Republicans are prepared to join Greene, at least at this point. But more than 100 of them signaled frustration with Johnson’s approach to government spending by opposing a funding patch on Thursday, including House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik of New York. Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), who briefly served as interim speaker, delivered a blunt warning Thursday night that “we’re sucking wind” under Johnson’s leadership, urging the speaker to broaden his circle of advisers and avoid kowtowing to his right.
And still other Republicans are privately predicting that unless Johnson can hang onto their thin majority this fall, his time atop the GOP conference could expire.
Interviews with more than a dozen GOP lawmakers revealed a consensus that Johnson would have serious trouble staying in power after an electoral defeat. These days, some lawmakers who embraced Johnson — after the failure of three other aspiring successors to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy — openly acknowledge that the Louisianan would get the blame for any stumble at the ballot box this fall.
“It’s up to him to win or lose. And if he loses, he will leave,” said Texas Rep. Pete Sessions, a former National Republican Congressional Committee chair.
Sessions, who had his own short-lived bid for the gavel in October, predicted that if Republicans do not hold the majority, then Johnson “isn’t going to stick around — I mean that.”
Yes, he was dealt a bad hand. But he is also a right wing nut job who is at the mercy of his own allies — other right wing nut jobs. The House is ungovernable by any GOP majority. It’s been that way for over a decade because the party has lost its mind. Johnson is just the latest in a long line of failed GOP speakers.
But here’s a little bit of sunshine for you:
Johnson allies argue that skeptics are underestimating him, pointing to his quick progress assuaging concerns that he couldn’t keep up with McCarthy’s torrid fundraising pace. The more he helps with the 2024 campaign and candidate recruitment, the more Johnson can form some of the deeper connections to incoming members that helped McCarthy survive a grueling speakership race last January.
Even so, Republicans are openly admitting that they’re worried about November. Which is never a good sign.
“We’re in real jeopardy of not winning the White House and not winning the House,” said Rep. Richard McCormick (R-Ga.), who argued the party is not focused on voters’ top issues.
“The Federal Reserve is going to cut [interest rates] probably at least twice, if not five times this year. The gas price always comes down during an election. And the border will be secured before November. It’s gonna happen, right? It’s gonna be part of some package,” McCormick mused. “What are the three things that are the Achilles heel of Biden? Those three things.”