Representative Don Bacon acknowledged Sunday that it is “possible” that Speaker Mike Johnson will lose the top House job over an impending vote on aid to Ukraine. “I’m not going to deny it,” the Nebraska conservative told NBC’s Kristen Welker.
The comment comes as the House enters the second half of a two-week recess, which came on the heels of a tense fight over a government funding bill that barely averted a shutdown. Johnson entered the break promising to “turn our attention” to Ukraine, an issue that has divided the fractious House GOP caucus and kept the U.S. government from approving an aid package, even as the Senate passed a $95 billion bill in February.
George Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has long been staunchly opposed to U.S. aid to Ukraine, filed a motion to vacate Johnson’s speakership right as the House went into recess, warning that Johnson “should not bring funding for Ukraine” to the House floor. Greene has yet to say when she plans to move forward with the motion.
“We have one or two people that are not team players. They’d rather enjoy the limelight, the social media,” Bacon said Sunday, without calling out any of his House GOP colleagues by name. “It’s a very narrow majority, and one or two people can make us a minority.”
Republicans’ razor-thin House majority means that members who support Ukraine aid have had to work with Democrats, further enraging parts of the far-right GOP flank. Bacon called for a “bicameral, bipartisan solution” to the issue on Sunday. “We put a bill together that focuses on military aid — a $66 billion bill that provides military aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan,” he said, referencing a bipartisan House national security package released in February. “If we do this bill, and I think we will, there’s enough support in the House to get this done. And I want to make sure that we have support in the Senate.”
How exactly Johnson plans to proceed when the House returns from its recess is still being determined. CNN reported Sunday that the Speaker has been strategizing on the issue with a surprising ally: Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, who helped orchestrate the ouster of Johnson’s predecessor Kevin McCarthy last fall.
Gaetz is reportedly pushing Johnson to move forward with an aid package that is fully funded by spending decreases elsewhere. “If there were no offsets, we’d be really disappointed,” he told CNN Sunday. “I think we need to not deficit-spend to fund Ukraine. I also think that we need to have our own border prioritized. And I think Speaker Johnson shares that viewpoint.”
But such a move would immediately alienate House Democrats, whom Johnson may have to rely on to save his job if Greene pushes forward with the motion to vacate. “I do think there will be Democrats, though, who do not want to see this dysfunction,” Bacon said of a potential vote on Johnson’s leadership. “And I think they’ll probably vote present or maybe not be there for a vote.”
On Sunday, South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn told NBC’s Welker that “if [House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries] were to call me and say, ‘Look, I would like to have your vote in support of Johnson,’ he’s got it.” Jeffries said in February that if Johnson does “the right thing” on Ukraine, enough Democrats will likely vote to save his speakership if it comes to that point.
