Second Republican threatens to oust Mike Johnson as speaker

House Speaker Mike Johnson is fighting to keep his job, which he has held for less than six months. At least two House Republicans are threatening to impeach him over his plans to manage Ukraine's aid to Israel. This was his message a short time ago. I will not resign. And, in my opinion, it's an absurd idea for someone to file a motion to quash when we're just here trying to do our job. It doesn't help the cause. It doesn't help the country. It doesn't help House Republicans advance our agenda, which is best for the American people here.

CNN's Manu Roggio is at the Capitol. You've been talking to legislators all morning. Obviously, Manu, this is about short-term politics for Mike Johnson. But we must not lose sight, of course, of the fact that Ukraine and its allies, both here and abroad, have been begging Mike Johnson to do something quickly so as not to lose to Russia. Yes, this has been going on for months and months and months and just two months. It continues as the Senate passes its own foreign aid package and sidelines Mike Johnson. And while he was trying to come up with his own strategy, he was trying to win over the Republicans.

And just yesterday he announced his strategy, saying that he would move forward with separate bills for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and another bill that includes other political measures, including a ban. And it could be something that could eventually lead to TikTok being banned. But here's the trick. The House is expected to use a parliamentary maneuver to essentially roll up all of those bills into a single package and send it to the Senate. And that's what's causing a lot of angst within the ranks of the Republican Party. Many Republicans, particularly on the far right, have said there shouldn't be a cent more for Ukraine.

They don't want to link this with aid to Israel. The Democrats and the White House want it all together because what they say is essential is actually an emergency for Ukraine. They say this money is needed right now. Now, all this comes, of course, with the threat of expulsion. Mike Johnson is growing up. In fact, Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, announced behind closed doors that he would support this effort by Marjorie Taylor GREENE to

oust

Johnson from the presidency. And he directly asked Johnson to resign. And I asked him about that interaction in a tense exchange behind closed doors.

Do you want me to resign? Do you want me to resign? Yes. Yes, I asked him to resign. This is what he said. He said he wouldn't do it. And then I said, well, you're the one who's going to get us into this because the motion is going to be called. I'm not a big fan of this, you know? Well, I like the individual. Oh, he doesn't really like putting them all back together. What happens with the motion to annul? We should not. We don't need that. No way. No way. We do not. We don't want that.

We can not. We shouldn't go through that again. So we're seeing a difference of opinion between two good conservatives on the right flank of the Republican conference. Of course, Jim Jordan is influential among many Republicans. But it's interesting to hear Jordan there, while he opposes this effort to

oust

Mike Johnson, he also opposes what the

speaker

is trying to do here. You're seeing a lot of division among Republicans at this critical time because there's a question here, Dana, how long can Johnson survive? Does Mike Johnson even have the votes to get this measure out of the House by the end of the week?

What is his objective? There are so many things riding on these key decisions right now, but it's a very precarious moment for the

speaker

, almost almost speaker Jim Jordan saying, no, we shouldn't do this again. The dynamics among Democrats, particularly among the most vulnerable. There are several of them who are stepping forward saying, you know what, they would potentially vote to help Mike Johnson because that would help them in their swing districts. What is the dynamic there? Yes it's correct. Yes, it's an interesting dynamic, very different from what we saw with Kevin McCarthy when all the Democrats voted with eight Republicans to unseat Kevin McCarthy.

This time it's different. Several of them, including Tom Suozzi of New York, who told me that he will not vote to recall Mike Johnson. Jared Moskowitz said he would not support Marjorie Taylor GREENE's efforts to unseat him because he does not agree with Marjorie Taylor. GREENE and almost everything, if another member would come forward and oust Mike Johnson. He then said that he would evaluate that aspect. And then there are others who say that if he moves forward on Ukraine, that will be enough to save Mike Johnson's presidency. Abby. Abigail Spanberger is one of them. So there's a different dynamic here, Dana, but more than that, how will the numbers add up?

Will there be enough Democrats to save them? What will Democratic leaders do in that key vote? These are all key questions that will arise in the coming days. I'm glad you have those comfortable shoes every day. Monroe, thank you very much for that excellent report. The panel is back here. Your post has a very simple title. I'll put it in then. I didn't write it. You didn't write it. But it's still simple and very appropriate. We are screwed. Well, actually, I wrote that one. Look, we are. This is going to be incredibly complicated. I think, man, you just did a great job breaking it down.

And right now, this is really basic math. About whether he will survive for every Republican Johnson loses. He has to find a Democrat to come out of the side. And that's why, you know, the shoe leather or, hopefully, the comfortable shoes that Manu wears are going to be so important because we're going to be running around trying to figure this out. And let's just please take a step back and say that this is not the most egregious political move Mike Johnson could make in the grand scheme of things. What he is trying to do is provide money for a democracy in Europe that is threatened, literally under siege.

And this is what you are getting. It's called governing. It's called legislation. It's called performing the duties of your position, which for some at your conference is not a positive thing. But I think the difference here with the McCarthy thing is simply the time of the season we're in. We are during a presidential campaign season, there is very little tolerance or even less tolerance for some kind of motion to evict and remove the speaker. outside. Again, I'm not saying it won't happen, but when the former president had President Johnson at his side just a few days ago, that was the guys' cue: leave him alone.

Let him do his job. We'll see if they follow it closer to the presidential election, closer to the day when all members of the House are on the ballot. Yeah, no, I think that will make some difference. I mean, it's notable that the reason these Republicans are so angry about the funding of Ukraine is because of President Trump and his approach toward Putin, his approach and his feelings toward Russia. So here we are watching them do his bidding again, treating him as if he were a president in exile in many ways. And Mike Johnson in a place where I thought, you know, listen, six months ago, he figured he'd be here with his speaking position on the line, and it'll probably happen again and again.