Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky indicated that no scenario would push him to re-elect Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Friday — not even if someone were pulling out his fingernails.
“You can pull all my fingernails out, you can shove bamboo up in them, you can start cutting off my finger, I am not voting for Mike Johnson,” Massie told former representative Matt Gaetz on his new primetime show on the conservative One America News Network (OAN).
Massie’s dramatic but definitive stance means Johnson needs to work extra hard to obtain the necessary votes to maintain his position as speaker.
The 119th Congress is expected to be sworn-in on Friday and the House will hold a vote to determine the next speaker. Though Johnson is endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump, his position on Ukraine aid funding and recent kerfuffle over a spending bill has made him a few enemies within his own party.
Given Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the House, Johnson can only afford to lose one other vote in addition to Massie’s. Dozens of Republicans have yet to endorse Johnson publicly.