Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon whipped MAGA sentiment against House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., Thursday night, telling the crowd at Turning Point USA’s “AmericaFest” in Arizona that “he’s gotta go.”
“Clearly, Johnson’s not up to the task, and he’s gotta go, right?” Bannon said, according to Mediaite. “He’s gotta go!”
“Should Johnson be speaker of the House?” Bannon asked the crowd.
“No!” the crowd yelled back.
“President Trump, these are your people,” Bannon continued. “[Johnson] doesn’t have that, what we call the right stuff, right? That combination of guts and moxie and savvy and toughness!”
Johnson was slated to speak at the annual event but canceled his plans as congressional lawmakers scrambled to reach a government funding deal ahead of a 12:01 a.m. ET Saturday deadline and avert a partial government shutdown.
After rejecting a 1,547-page continuing resolution and going back to the drawing board, the House then voted against a plan backed by President-elect Donald Trump to fund federal operations and suspend the debt ceiling on Thursday night. Racing to beat the clock, Johnson proposed a new plan on Friday that would temporarily fund government operations and disaster aid but puts off Trump’s demand to raise the debt ceiling until the new year.
Johnson has taken criticism from all sides this week amid Congress’ struggle to come up with a spending plan to fund the government through mid-March and at least one Republican lawmaker said he’s a no vote for Johnson to remain speaker in 2025.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., a longtime critic of Johnson, told reporters on Friday that the speaker’s reliance on Democrats to pass a stopgap government funding bill has cemented his decision to oppose his reelection. With Republicans holding a slim majority in the next Congress, Johnson can only afford to lose a few votes on Jan. 3 and retain his post.
“I’m not going to vote for him for speaker,” Massie said. “This whole exercise demonstrates that he has a hard time making decisions, he comes up with ideas that don’t work and then we just kind of wander around trying to find a path forward until he figures out what” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., will accept.
President-elect Donald Trump is also scheduled to speak at “AmericaFest,” delivering a capstone speech on Sunday that will close out the conservative nonprofit’s four-day event at the Phoenix Convention Center. It will be his first trip to Arizona since winning the battleground in the Nov. 5 presidential election.