House Speaker Mike Johnson’s grip on his fractious conference appears to be slipping after he unveiled a plan to bring separate bills funding aid for Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan to the House floor—a move that has angered some far-right House Republicans.
Johnson’s risky plan led a second Republican to call for his resignation on Tuesday. At a weekly conference meeting, Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who opposes funding for Ukraine, said that he plans to co-sponsor a motion to vacate the speaker chair should Johnson move forward with the funding request, joining Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, in calling for Johnson’s removal.
Johnson, not even six months into the job, is now facing yet another major test that promises to shape his speakership going forward: Can he move the foreign aid bills and save his job as Speaker at the same khbrknews?
“I am not resigning and it is in my view an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply trying to do our job,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday. “We need steady leadership. We need steady hands on the wheel… I regard myself as a wartime Speaker.”
For months, Johnson has delayed taking action on the $95 billion national security supplemental passed by the Senate two months ago that would provide military assistance to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. But Iran over the weekend launched an aerial attack on Israel in retaliation for a deadly airstrike on its consulate in Syria, amplifying calls for Congress to respond quickly. And Ukraine’s military head warned over the weekend that Russia’s offensive on the eastern front has escalated “significantly” in recent days.
“We always knew this was going to be difficult for a raw speaker,” Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican and chair of the House Appropriations Committee, tells TIME. “We don’t have unanimity on a lot of issues and, obviously, the majority is so narrow. But I think Johnson is navigating this…
