Although hardliners in the House Republican conference aren't yet making a move to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), they are nonetheless furious that he passed a bipartisan stopgap bill to keep the government open and are plotting other ways to rebel.
Politico reports that House Freedom Caucus members such as Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC) are pitching mass obstruction to any future House procedural votes until Johnson agrees to meet their demands.
"There is a sentiment that if we can’t fight anything, then let’s just hold up everything," he explained to Politico.
Fellow Freedom Caucus member Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-VA) said Johnson deserved the benefit of the doubt in the short term but added that "we need to see something different" in future budget negotiations.
Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC) was also willing to cut Johnson some slack but he warned the speaker that his honeymoon period has ended.
“He’s got to find an opportunity to change the dynamics,” Bishop said. “If he can’t, he’s going to follow the same path of not just the immediately previous speaker but a series of them who have not really proved successful.”
However, swing-district Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) scoffed at the threats from the hardliners and predicted that it would blow up in their faces if they persisted.
“It just forces us to work with Democrats — these guys play checkers, they don’t play chess," he said.
