Johnson signals he won't change rules to oust a House speaker

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday confirmed that he would not change a rule permitting a single lawmaker to bring a motion to vacate the speaker's chair, despite growing calls for his removal from within the Republican conference.

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has put forward a motion to remove Johnson, warned on Thursday that Johnson would motion to make it harder to boot him from leadership.

"Mike Johnson owes our entire conference a meeting and if he wants to change the motion to vacate, he needs to come before the Republican conference that elected him and tell us of his intentions and tell us what this rule change to the motion to vacate is going to be," she said.

But Johnson indicated he has no intention of making such a move as Greene alleged.

"Since the beginning of the 118th Congress, the House rule allowing a Motion to Vacate from a single member has harmed this office and our House majority," he posted on X. "Recently, many members have encouraged me to endorse a new rule to raise this threshold. While I understand the importance of that idea, any rule change requires a majority of the full House, which we do not have. We will continue to govern under the existing rules."

Thus far, only Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie has backed Greene's call for a leadership change. The pair have taken issue with Johnson's handling of budget negotiations, as well has his support for extending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act's Section 702 surveillance powers and his plan to advance foreign aid to Israel, Ukraine, and Taiwan in separate bills.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter.