Johnson Confirms He Will Not Remove Hardliners from Rules Committee

As most of you know, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has faced numerous challenges from hardline conservatives in the House.

Several of these members are part of the very powerful and influential Rules Committee.

There have been calls for Johnson to eliminate the problem by removing these members from the committee, but Johnson has confirmed that is not the approach that he would prefer to take.

Not Happening

As you guys know, I have not been happy with Mike Johnson either, but I have to give him props for not taking the easy way out here.

As Speaker, he could easily remove Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), and Thomas Massie (R-KY) from their committee assignments and be done with it.

If he removed them from the rules committee, the changes he would like to make would be made, and there would be no threat of removal.

Instead, he appears to want to work with them to solve the problems.

On not removing these members, he stated, "If I start kicking people off committees right now, it's likely that I cause more problems than it solves.

"There are actions and then there are reactions and reverberations from the actions."

Johnson then defended his decision to pass the aid for Israel, Taiwan, and Ukraine, stating, "History is going to judge this well. It was the right thing to do.

"The perception of a strong America is essential on the world stage — and I think the Congress has acted to make sure that happens."

Johnson later added that he believes the GOP will have an “extraordinary election cycle” this year, which will give the GOP a bigger majority and ideally allow it to take back the Senate and White House.

If he is wrong, removing him will no longer be an issue because Dems will have control of the House, if not the entire government.

If that happens, I expect to see some major changes right across the entire party in terms of leadership.