Speaker Johnson warns that effort to oust him ‘would be chaos in the House’

Johnson, who has faced pushback from conservatives over his handling of government funding, argued that it was important to keep the government open and cautioned against any push to strip him of the gavel.

“It doesn’t serve our interest, I didn’t think, to not fund the government and shut it down at this critical time,” he said at a news conference. The speaker went on to say, “That just wasn’t an option. I don’t think that would be helpful to us from a political standpoint for the Republican Party to continue to govern, to maintain, keep and then grow our majority in November. I thought that would have been a great hindrance to it. And so that wouldn’t be helpful, and nor does the motion to vacate help us in that regard either. It would be chaos in the House.”

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed a motion to remove Johnson from the speakership, but has not yet moved to force a vote on it.

Johnson said he will speak with Greene on Wednesday. “I look forward to the conversation and I’m not going to discuss it anymore. I’m not going to discuss it with you all, I’ll discuss it with her.”

The speaker also attempted to ease tensions amid the threat over his ouster. “With regard to Marjorie Taylor Greene, she’s a colleague, I’ve always considered her a friend,” he said. “Marjorie and I don’t disagree, I think, on any matter of philosophy - we’re both conservatives, but we do disagree sometimes on strategy with regard to what we put on the floor and when.”

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