Kemp on House Republicans’ ‘bickering’: ‘Enough is enough’

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) on Tuesday threw his support behind House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), arguing House Republicans need to stop “bickering,” as the Speaker faces ouster threats over recent policy decisions.

“Instead of bickering amongst themselves and handing Democrats control of the House, Republicans should do their damn job and vote on the important issues facing our nation,” Kemp wrote in a post on the social platform X Tuesday. “Enough is enough. I support @SpeakerJohnson.”

Kemp made the remarks in a response to a post from Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who emerged on Tuesday as the first Republican to publicly back Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) motion to vacate Johnson from the Speakership.

Massie’s announcement came less than 24 hours after Johnson revealed his plan to move foreign aid through the House, pushing for four separate bills to cover aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other national security priorities.

In a shift from his previous stance, Johnson did not include border security provisions despite months of demands from House GOP members that any aid for Ukraine be linked with border legislation.

Explaining his decision to back the motion, Massie cited Johnson’s plan to put Ukraine aid on the floor, along with his handling of government funding and the reauthorization of the U.S.’s warrantless surveillance authority.

Neither Massie nor Greene have yet to say when they might trigger a motion-to-vacate resolution. With the GOP’s razor-thin majority, Johnson would likely need support from Democrats to keep the gavel. Some Democrats said in recent weeks they would help save Johnson if he brought Ukraine aid to the floor.

Multiple GOP lawmakers on Tuesday lambasted the effort to oust the Speaker and argued any effort will not be successful should it come to the floor.

“As I said last week, you have a loose affiliated collation government at this point, you’re not going to get a majority of votes for any new person,” Rep. Garrett Graves (R-La.) said. “And for that reason, I don’t think that folks are going to go through with it at this point.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who vied for the Speaker’s gavel last fall, said the GOP conference “does not need” the motion to vacate. 

“We don’t want that. We shouldn’t go through that again,” he told reporters and quite frankly, want to continue to try to move the needle on governing and delivering for the people that sent us here,” he told The Hill. “It’s a total waste of time and absolute ridiculous concept.”

The intraparty divisions come just months after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was booted from the top role in the chamber over his handling of government funding and other policy disagreements. The GOP infighting that followed caused the House to go without a permanent Speaker for nearly three weeks.