Top Republican gives brutal assessment of GOP's 'fifth choice' Mike Johnson

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) on Thursday delivered a brutal assessment of House Speaker Mike Johnson's (R-LA) tenure so far.

In an interview with CBS News' Major Garrett flagged by Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman, McHenry essentially argued that Johnson is only House Speaker because the GOP conference couldn't agree on anyone else to take the job, and not because anyone really wanted him there.

"We went through five choices and Mike Johnson's the fifth choice," he said. "He has not been around these leadership decisions. He's had a really tough process."

McHenry then said that these challenges are being made even worse by the circumstances Johnson now finds himself in as he tries to keep the government open while passing military aid for key U.S. allies including Israel and Ukraine.

"We've thrown him into the deepest end of the pool with the heaviest weights around him and trying to teach him how to learn to swim," he said. "It's been a rough couple of months.”

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Johnson rose to power after a small group of rebellious House Republicans joined with all House Democrats to vote to vacate the chair and remove former Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) as speaker.

This set off a weekslong fight that saw the GOP rifle through a number of failed candidates -- including Reps. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Jim Jordan (R-OH), and Tom Emmer (R-MN) -- before finally settling on Johnson.

Although Johnson is more ideologically conservative than McCarthy, he has nonetheless run into the same problem McCarthy had with many hardliners who have rebelled against plans to avert government shutdowns.