House Speaker Mike Johnson is having another bad week, and it’s only Tuesday. He got the Republican conference together Tuesday morning to present his complicated plan for the House to vote on aid to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. The business of the day was derailed by Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who told Johnson he’s on thin ice.
When it was just Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene making the threat to oust Johnson—and being ridiculed for it by colleagues—it was easy to ignore. Massie’s joining in changes things. As of this Friday, when Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin resigns, Johnson will have just one vote to spare—either to pass legislation with a Republican majority or to keep him in his job.
He needs Democrats more than ever. Now that he’s committed to pushing through the aid package, he has a political and personal stake in getting it approved. The House Freedom Caucus is already opposed to it, and powerful Rep. Jim Jordan told Johnson he can’t count on his vote even to move the package to the floor, much less vote for it.
Johnson’s plan is to pass each package separately along with a fourth bill that’s larded up with policy priorities for the GOP to try to get them on board—the REPO Act which would direct the sale of seized Russian assets, a TikTok ban, and economic and humanitarian loans to Ukraine. Donald Trump has been pushing for loans to Ukraine instead of direct aid, so this proposal from Johnson would give a nod to that, and focus direct aid on military defense.
At this point, Johnson likely can’t even get the aid bills to the floor without help from Democrats, and he sure can’t count on keeping his job without at least a few of them helping him out. But he’s already created problems for himself with the Democrats by telling Republicans they could have amendments to the aid bills—something that “wasn’t part of the conversation that Johnson had with President Joe Biden on Monday,” according to Punchbowl News’ sources.
That kind of duplicity is one of the reasons Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries isn’t making any promises about helping Johnson. He’s working to unite his conference behind the discharge petition to force the House to vote on the bill the Senate approved in February—the fastest and cleanest way to get the job done. A bipartisan group of members has already pressured Johnson to do just that. If this complicated, four-bill aid process fails, at least one Republican told reporter Jake Sherman that “the floodgates will open and they’ll just sign the Senate bill discharge petition.”
Johnson could save a great deal of grief and embarrassment for himself this week—and perhaps salvage his reputation as a leader—if he would just stop the nonsense and put the Senate bill on the floor. Yes, it would likely make Greene and Johnson mad enough to pull the trigger on their motion to oust him, but it would also likely cement enough support from Democrats to save his sorry ass.
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