Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., is warning against the repercussions of his own party’s attempt to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who is facing harsh criticism for the U.S. spending bill that passed last week to avert a government shutdown.
“The fact is that Mike Johnson inherited a disaster when Matt Gaetz and several of my colleagues teamed up with 208 Democrats to remove Kevin McCarthy, which will go down as the single stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in politics,” Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., said on ABC News on Sunday.
“With that said, removing Mike Johnson would equally be as stupid,” he continued. “The fact is that these folks are playing with fire, and if they think they’re somehow going to get a more conservative speaker, they’re kidding themselves.”
Johnson can only afford to lose one Republican vote when Congress votes on its new leader later this week.
A conservative hardliner and staunch supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, Johnson was selected as the House speaker in Oct. 2023 following the removal of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Though the president-elect has previously said he is with Johnson “all the way,” he slammed the Louisiana Republican’s proposed stopgap U.S. spending bill last week for failing to raise the debt ceiling and including “Democrat handouts.”