GOP nervous as frustrated colleague takes aim at Mike Johnson: report

North Carolina GOP Rep. Patrick McHenry is taking aim at House Speaker Mike Johnson — and it has his fellow conservatives concerned.

McHenry, who plans to retire at the end of the session, has been critical of Johnson over what he sees as his repeated mishandling of issues such as the border and Ukraine aid.

A banking lobbyist speaking to Politico said that McHenry, “Speaks for what I would call the leadership class of the conference.”

“Patrick uses the ‘Shawshank Redemption’ metaphor,” the lobbyist said. “Andy Dufresne has to crawl three miles through a pipe full of human s--t to go and reach freedom. And Patrick’s like, ‘Well, you can crawl slowly, or you can crawl quickly.’ … The analogy is supposed to be like, just make a decision.”

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According to Politico, McHenry’s critique of Johnson, "Is an illustration of the extent to which the House GOP has been turned upside down during his tenure."

"The 48-year-old lawmaker was once a self-described 'bomb-thrower' — also referred to by others as the 'the GOP’s attack dog-in-training' — but then took on the mantle as an aspiring deal-maker and McCarthy fixer before finding himself on the outside again in the Johnson era," Politico's report stated.

Louisiana GOP Rep. Garret Graves said that the "extreme candor" from McHenry is based on "his 20 years of work on the Hill."

“Patrick’s candor is not just motivated by the fact that he’s leaving. But I think it’s motivated by an extraordinary amount of frustration that he feels," Graves said.

McHenry told Politico that he's only sharing what other Republicans are saying.

“I’ve been around leadership decisions for quite a while,” he said. “I’ve never been bashful about sharing my views, either in the room or outside the room. And what I’m saying is obvious to a majority of the House Republican Conference.”

Read more at Politico.