He pushed through Ukraine aid despite losing the support of the majority of the House Republican Conference on Saturday afternoon, but the threat to his tenure in office still remains. The question now is what happens once everyone gets back to Capitol Hill in May.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who introduced a motion to vacate in March, still isn’t yet ready to trigger it. However, with two Republicans already signing on and plenty of other hard-right members flirting with the idea of ousting him, Johnson will likely face a vote for his job sooner rather than later.
With members of Congress out on recess, the other question now is how much pressure they’ll face to can Johnson. Traditional right wing media is still backing him — MTG railed at a Fox News reporter over an op-ed the outlet ran calling her an idiot — but MAGA media feels differently. Steve Bannon has endorsed giving Johnson the axe, and Breitbart ran an op-ed on Saturday calling for the same. The pressure campaign against the speaker will be waged in Facebook comments and Twitter and Truth Social posts in the coming days as Republicans see just how angry the conservative grassroots is over Ukraine.
Even with a massive rebellion, Johnson is still likely to keep his office. Many Democrats have made clear that they don’t want the GOP to oust him for his support for Ukraine aid. But the more conservatives revolt against Johnson, the more he will need those Democrats to save him.
I wrote about how Johnson decided to go this route here.
Intelligencer Staff
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