It’s the old broken clock cliche with regards to an article on Axios about House Speaker Mike Johnson’s fate and Ukraine aid.
After 36 hours of agonizing inaction, House Speaker Mike Johnson has given Democrats a reason, and a timeline, to bail him out.
Why it matters: A GOP-led Johnson ouster attempt is more of a when instead of an if, but he's got a shot to get foreign aid bills passed before a vote on his job.
And this is part of the Brendan Buck school of thinking. For those not up on many of the Republican political analysts on MSNBC, Buck has argued that Majorie Tayor Greene is a bad faith actor who will eventually push a motion to vacate Johnson’s speakership. Buck thinks that Johnson should at least do the right thing with regards to Ukraine aid and let the chips fall where they may. This way Johnson would have done SOMETHING with his role as House speaker besides just fund the government.
Now, how will this all turn out by Saturday when they expect to vote on all these separate bills for foreign aid? Beats me. It sounds like Johnson is running into a lot of flak from the nut jobs in his caucus, and he may not have the votes to get the bills past the rule phase. Rule votes are almost invariably partisan, so if enough Republicans say, “NO WAY!” the bills will have to be brought to the floor in some other manner (suspension of the rules for example).
How will all these bills be brought together to pass the House? Hell, I have no idea. The individual bill on Ukraine aid will have bipartisan support, but the fourth bill filled with Republican “goodies” to placate the crazies will not get bipartisan support. Finally, there is a fifth bill on — wait for it — “border security,” which has even the some so called moderate Republicans screaming that must be part of all of this final deal.
Never mind that Trump made Republicans already kill a border security bill introduced in the U.S. Senate. Nope. Republicans want to have another stab at some build the wall scheme on the border, which will go no where in the U.S. Senate.
Once there are votes on any of these bills, MTG will push for a motion to vacate vote. And it sounds like she may have other assholes who threw McCarthy under the bus to help her out (see Gaetz). And Chip Roy is apopletic about Ukraine aid vote, and he is sounding like he will help MTG out.
Conservative hardliners were quickly fuming at Johnson for his decision to move ahead with billions of dollars in aid to Ukraine and loudly warning him it could cost him his job.
An angry Rep. Chip Roy of Texas said he is “very disappointed” in the speaker, and he is “past the point of giving grace.”
“I need a little bit more time today, but it is not good,” Roy said when asked by CNN if it is time for him to get out of office.
Firebrand Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz called Johnson’s decision to move ahead with the foreign aid bills as tantamount to “surrender,” vowing to vote against the package and work hard to pressure others to not support the move. Other Republicans also expressed anger and wouldn’t rule out voting against Johnson on procedural motions that could upend the bill.
The only question is if Democrats will help save Johnshon, and it all depends upon what Democrats can extract from Johnson on the aid packages. While some moderate House Democrats are eager to help save Johnson, Jeffries hasn’t released all the Democrats to vote for Johnson. And Jeffries wants to see what Johnson is offering first.
Saturday will be fun.