Rep. Thomas Massie: Bringing a resolution to the House Freedom Caucus, but not during the conference or after Greene’s vote

A member of the House Freedom Caucus, Norman respects Massie but disagrees with his stance on the motion to vacate.

“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 that it was not helpful to the cause. “We have to have a united front and we have to have our members work together.”

As of Friday, Johnson will have only one seat left, because of the retirement of Wisconsin Rep. Mike Gallagher. If Greene were to call for a vote, Johnson would likely need support from Democrats to keep the gavel.

Right now we’re focusing on that. He said that they can’t control the antics of the House Republican conference. We don’t like chaos and the way things work. We’ve been down this road before.

His comments come almost a month after Greene filed a motion to vacate resolution over disputes with the speaker on how he handled a $1.2 trillion appropriations package. It’s unclear when the resolution will be brought to the floor for a vote.

“If somebody wants to leave on the floor, it succeeds and you lose a speaker,” Massie said. “Then you have a temporary speaker that’s hot and stinky.”

Massie argued that Johnson should resign so that the members could coalesce around a replacement so that they don’t have to go through another process like last fall when they elected Johnson as speaker.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., says he is co-sponsoring a resolution by Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, as frustration grows among blocs of conservative members at Johnson’s proposed foreign aid package.

“We’re steering everything toward what [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer wants,” Massie said of his complaints with Johnson. If the country likes Chuck Schumer then they should be happy with what Speaker Johnson’s accomplished.

There are three areas where Johnson has let his conference down: the latest spending package, the House’s renewal of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence surveilance act, and aid to Ukraine.

The foreign aid package that passed the Senate and was the Democrats’ priority would only get one House vote, according to Clark. She mentioned that the $9 billion of assistance to Gaza and other countries included in the Senate bill is a red line.

Typically, the minority does not provide votes to pass rules on the floor. Speaking to reporters Wednesday morning, Democratic House Whip Katherine Clark on Wednesday did not rule out Democrats supporting the rule in this case, but said her caucus needed to see the substance of the legislation first.

If the border security bill was not included,Norman would oppose the rule for the larger package. Republican Reps. Chip Roy of Texas and Thomas Massie of Kentucky also sit on the Rules Committee and have spoken out against the plan. The Speaker talked to the three about their concerns.

Three Republican “No’s” in committee could defeat the motion before it even comes to the floor. On the floor, Johnson’s razor-thin majority has almost no wiggle room.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is moving ahead with plans to vote on separate bills that will provide assistance to Ukraine and other allies, despite growing criticism from within his conference.

The plan is to introduce the three individual foreign aid bills; a fourth bill placing sanctions on Russia, China and Iran; and a fifth bill including border security measures, Johnson said in a message to House Republicans Wednesday. Bill text for the foreign aid bills was posted Wednesday afternoon.

The border bill will not be considered together with the four bills related to foreign threats. Rep. Ralph Norman, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus and the House Rules Committee, said that the arrangement would mean the border bill was “set up to fail.”