Speaker Johnson committed „three betrayals“ to lead to the upcoming vote to eject him from the speakership, Rep. Thomas Massie said.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) committed “three betrayals” to lead to the upcoming vote to eject him from the speakership, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said Wednesday.
Massie partnered with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who introduced the motion to vacate in April, to force the vote. They held a Wednesday press conference announcing their move, during which Massie outlined those three betrayals.
Funding Democrat Priorities and Killing Regular Order Through Spending Bills
“The first betrayal was the omnibus bill,” Massie said. “Under Kevin McCarthy, we did seven separate spending bills. And then when Mike Johnson took over, did we start working on the other side? No, you threw the seven in the trash.”
Conservatives had fought for assurances from then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to return regular order on spending bills. Although McCarthy ushered through a short-term continuing resolution in September 2023 for extra time, he had already assured seven of the twelve appropriations bills had passed.
“All the hard work that we had done, Mike Johnson disposed of and decided to do an omnibus bill – an omnibus bill that spent more than Nancy Pelosi’s omnibus bill (passed in late 2022), an omnibus bill that builds the FBI a brand new building.”
Massie took particular umbrage at Johnson including funding for a new FBI facility due to the agency’s continued stonewalling of constitutional oversight by the Judiciary Committee, on which Massie serves.
“Meanwhile, we’re over here in our Judiciary Committee asking them for answers,” he said. “They mock us, they thumb their noses at us, and why shouldn’t they? We’re going to build them a new building and send them strongly worded letters, as if we’re going to do something about their insolence.”
Empowering Warrantless Surveillance of American Citizens through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
“A second betrayal of Mike Johnson was passing FISA without warrants,” Massie continued. “Did he do this in a proper way? No.”
Congress had debated the expiring Section 702 provisions of FISA for months, with competing visions held the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. The Intelligence Committee hewed closely to the Biden administration and intelligence state, which opposed reforms that could have required warrants before intel agencies spied on American citizens.
