Mike Johnson took the first vote in the House Speaker vote on Friday, but he also won something else: a modern rules package That will make it harder for critics (and Democrats) to engineer his ouster from office.
We saw what happened in 2023 when former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) led a movement to unseat then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), an effort that ultimately proved successful. This led to McCarthy’s resignation from Congress, 22 days without a speaker, and numerous contentious votes before lawmakers could agree on Johnson.
Background: Kevin McCarthy deposed as Speaker of the House of Representatives – conservative influencers speak out
Gaetz moves to remove House speaker, McCarthy says ‘go ahead’
Now the bar was set higher for such a move, a result that will almost certainly allow Johson to sleep a little more soundly at night.
The rules package, approved by a vote of 215 to 209, requires nine members of the majority party to co-sponsor a motion to remove the speaker from the top leadership position, unlike current rules that require just one. The change particularly offers Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) some breathing room as he begins his first full term as speaker after initially encountering resistance to secure the hammer earlier in the day.
House Republicans have released a modern rules package that requires the support of nine members of the majority party to vote on removing the House speaker.
Before there was only one. pic.twitter.com/ulrA6UQYMx
— Bryan Metzger (@metzgov) January 1, 2025
Democrats complained about the move because they liked seeing the chaos of the McCarthy drama and would like to relive it. It’s almost comical to see House Democrats crying about “common ground” when they’ve sought nothing of the sort in the past four years under the Biden-Pelosi-Schumer regime.
“Your proposed changes would, for the first time in American history, insulate the Speaker from accountability to the entire chamber by making it so that only Republicans can move to remove the Speaker,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D- MA), the chairman Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said in a statement. “This makes it clear that they have no intention of working together to find common ground. Instead of electing a speaker of the House of Representatives, they decided to elect a speaker of the Republican Conference – who is being held hostage by their most extreme members.”
Oh. Do you need a tissue, Jim? The reality is that people like McGovern have no interest in finding common ground – they’re just upset that Republicans have found a way to create some semblance of order in the House and are trying to temporarily curb the circus atmosphere prevented Republicans from focusing on their goals.
In the meantime, it takes a little power from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who will undoubtedly spend the next two years doing everything in his power to undermine the GOP and the change in direction The American electorate in the USA has so clearly demanded elections in November.
One thing is clear: While we do not want Republicans to become a mindless monolith like progressives, and dissent is a necessary and essential part of the political process, it is also true that Republicans must work together to elect the president – Vote for Trump’s agenda and reverse the decline we saw under Biden.
Having a speaker who isn’t worried about getting fired every minute will assist achieve this goal.
