House Speaker Mike Johnson said he’s brushing off public musings from fellow Republicans on whether to boot him from the speakership, contending he’ll “keep trudging forward.”
The new spate of frustrations and grievances against Mr. Johnson, Louisiana Republican, stem from the top-line spending deal he and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, unveiled last weekend.
The deal, virtually the same as the previous spending number brokered by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Biden, has led to conservatives raising the notion of ousting Mr. Johnson.
Rep. Chip Roy, Texas Republican, said Tuesday he would leave the motion to vacate on the table.
“I’m not concerned about that; we’re leading,” Mr. Johnson said at his weekly press conference Wednesday. “Chip Roy is one of my closest friends. We agree on almost everything in principle.”
Mr. Johnson said he has discussed the difficulties of leading with a seven-seat majority, which will shrink when Rep. Bill Johnson, Ohio Republican, resigns on Jan. 21 to become president of Youngstown State University.
The speaker noted that this Republican majority is about the smallest in the history of Congress.
“We have very different challenges. We’re going to advance the ball. We’re going to advance our conservative principles. We’re going to demonstrate that we can govern well,” the speaker said. “I’m going to keep trudging forward, but leadership is tough. You take a lot of criticism, but remember I am a hardline conservative. That’s what they used to call me.”
Mr. Johnson’s path might not get easier. A pair of spending deadlines loom, the first of which is Jan. 19. Should Congress miss that, a handful of government agencies will shut down unless Mr. Johnson and Mr. Schumer pass another stopgap bill.
A growing number of House Republicans, led by the conservative House Freedom Caucus, are bucking the idea of funding the government altogether unless the GOP’s border bill is signed into law.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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