Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy predicted Sunday that House Republicans won’t attempt to dethrone his replacement during this session of Congress.
Last Friday, firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) dangled a motion to depose Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Friday, but framed that resolution as a warning.
“Speaker Johnson is doing the very best job he can. It’s a difficult situation,” McCarthy (R-Calif.) told CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “I do not think they could do it again.”
“I don’t think the Democrats will go along with it.”
Last time around, eight renegade House Republicans banded together with a solid bloc of Democrats to oust McCarthy. But already some House Democrats have mused about saving Johnson.
Greene backed McCarthy and blasted the mutiny led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) to take him down last October. But she has since soured on Johnson over the government funding package he pushed through last Friday.
After McCarthy’s ouster, the lower chamber was thrust into paralysis for roughly three weeks and the GOP’s majority has whittled down from 221 to 212 — to what will soon be 217 to 213 next month.
That’s because Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) on Friday announced his resignation effective April 19, which under Wisconsin rules, means that Republicans won’t be able to fill that seat until after the general election.
Part of the GOP’s dwindling majority is due to McCarthy’s decision to step down last year. He was coy Sunday about whether he should’ve stayed in Congress.
McCarthy also reiterated his longstanding advice to Johnson to “not be fearful of a motion to vacate.” Johnson insisted at the House Republican retreat earlier this month that he’s not concerned about a motion to vacate.
McCarthy and Johnson aren’t the first Republican speakers to face such a threat.
Some House Republicans also moved to furnish a motion to vacate against former House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in 2015, but he ultimately resigned instead.
McCarthy implied that the situation that led to his ouster was different from the circumstances swirling around Johnson. McCarthy contended that he was the victim of a vendetta from Gaetz, while Johnson is facing an issues-focused threat.
Referring to Greene, he said: “There’s times she was a difference of opinion to you sit down and find common ground.”
By contrast, McCarthy said, “Matt [Gaetz]’s case was much different. It’s about a personal thing.”
McCarthy has long alleged that Gaetz wanted him to intervene in a House Ethics Committee, but the congressman has strenuously denied that motivated his decision to oust him.
Gaetz isn’t backing Greene’s efforts to dethrone the speaker this time.
“If we vacated this speaker, we’d end up with a Democrat. When I vacated the last one, I made a promise to the country that we would not end up with the Democrat speaker,” he told reporters Friday.
Despite his ouster, McCarthy has fostered close ties with former President Donald Trump and hasn’t ruled out serving in a second Trump administration.
“I think people worried about whether they get a job in the next administration is the wrong place to be. You first have to have the election,” he said when asked about his ambitions.
