'Not particularly intelligent': Gaetz bashes GOP colleague over motion to vacate Johnson

18 April 2024

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Lousiana) is facing a growing revolt among a faction of far-right Republicans who may soon bring a motion to vacate him to the floor. And the Republican responsible for the ouster of Johnson's predecessor has not yet said which way he is leaning.

During a gaggle with reporters on Thursday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) expressed his frustration with Johnson over the issue of sending a new round of funding to Ukraine, which has caused a massive rift among members of the House Republican Conference. Gaetz told CNN congressional reporter Manu Raju that he had a confrontation with Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-Wisconsin), who reportedly demanded the motion be introduced in a way Gaetz described as "unhinged."

"[Van Orden] repeatedly was insisting that we call a motion to vacate to the floor. He was demanding it," Gaetz said. "The only thing I gleaned from it as that Mr. Van Orden is not a particularly intelligent individual."

Gaetz clarified that he thought bringing a motion to vacate Johnson "could put the [Republican] Conference in peril," and that he wasn't personally in favor of removing Johnson "when [he] woke up this morning" but added that "there's a lot of time left in the day." He noted that Johnson "views the Ukraine issue differently than we do," in reference to his fellow hard-right GOP colleagues.

Johnson's plans to vote on separate foreign aid bills to send additional money to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan depends on a controversial rule change. Gaetz and his faction are concerned the change would make it harder for members to bring a motion to vacate a sitting House speaker, and said he didn't want to he didn't want to "surrender that accountability tool, particularly at a time when we're seeing America's interests subjugated to foreign interests abroad."

Other House Republicans were more candid about the effort to oust Johnson. Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) told Raju that in his opinion, his colleagues "want Russia to win so badly that they want to oust the speaker over it."

"I mean that's a strange position to take," Crenshaw said. "I think they want to be in the minority too... I'm still trying to process all the bulls—."

Currently, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) have publicly vowed to vote for Johnson's ouster. And given Republicans' slim majority, a handful of Republicans could strip the gavel from Johnson assuming all Democrats also vote to remove him.

"Mike Johnson owes our entire conference a meeting, and if he wants to change the motion to vacate, he needs to come before the Republican conference that elected him and tell us of his intentions, and tell us what this rule change to the motion to vacate is going to be," Greene said.

Johnson has only been speaker for roughly six months, after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California) became the first House Speaker in U.S. history to be removed from his position via a motion to vacate filed by members of his own party. Gaetz and seven other Republicans — along with all Democrats — forced McCarthy after he brokered a deal to keep the U.S. current on its debt service obligations.

The House is likely to vote for the foreign aid legislation on Saturday. Greene has said she would introduce the motion to vacate if Johnson passed Ukraine aid without also passing funding for additional border security measures.

Watch Gaetz's remarks below, or by clicking this link.

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