Speaker Johnson calls ouster threat ‘absurd’

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday pushed back on the growing ouster effort against him, calling it “absurd” and “not helpful.”

The comment came shortly after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) announced that he would co-sponsor Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) motion to vacate resolution, becoming the first lawmaker to publicly back the Georgia Republican’s measure.

“It is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply here trying to do our jobs,” Johnson said at a press conference in the Capitol. “It is not helpful to the cause, it is not helpful to the country, it does not help the House Republicans advance our agenda which is in the best interest of the American people here — a secure border, sound governance — and it’s not helpful to the unity that we have in the body.”

“I am not concerned about this, I am going to do my job, and I think that’s what the American people expect of us,” he later added.

The Speaker also said he would not resign from the Speakership after Massie called on him to step down during a closed-door conference meeting Tuesday morning.

“I am not resigning,” he told reporters.

DEVELOPING.