"It's just insanity" that there could be another push to oust a House speaker over a budget disagreement, and there will be trouble for the Republican Party if such actions keep occurring, former Rep. Pete King said on Newsmax Sunday about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's motion to vacate filed Friday against House Speaker Mike Johnson.
"The reality is, Democrats control the White House and the Senate and we have a one- or two-vote margin in the House of Representatives," the New York Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "What she's talking about is going to cause more chaos and confusion."
Greene, R-Ga., formally filed a motion Friday to remove Johnson, R-La., because he supported the $1.2 trillion spending bill. The vacate procedure was also used in October to remove then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, from his position.
"We absolutely have to find a speaker that is going to lead the House of Representatives for our Republican values instead of a complete departure, like what happened today," Greene said Friday.
"Any budget that's going to go through, that's going to be done, is going to have a lot in it we don't like," King said Sunday. "The reality is, you have to bargain and negotiate for the best deal you can."
To return the Senate and presidency to Republican control and to retain control of the House, the party must win elections, he added.
"I don't see how Mike Johnson can be doing any better," said King. "I mean, I don't know him, not that well, but considering the numbers he's dealing with. I don't see how he could be doing better than he is. To risk taking out a speaker, [for] only the second or third time in the history of the country to me is just insanity."
Meanwhile, former Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., also on Sunday's "King's Table" segment, commented about former President Donald Trump's legal issues in New York, where he has been given until Monday to come up with a $4.4 million bond in his civil fraud case, or risk having his properties in the state seized.
The legal case, and others Trump is facing, are having an impact on American voters, Kingston said.
"Most Americans actually sympathize with the president," he said. "The Gallup Poll recently showed that 66% of America views the Department of Justice in a negative light. I think that helps Trump but on the same hand, candidates have time and money as maybe their most important asset that they have to control. You can't control your time if you have to keep going back to court."
In the New York case, state Attorney General Letitia James "doesn't know what she's doing" when it comes to valuing Trump's property but is waging a "political vendetta" against him, said Kingston.
"In the words of Trump's lawyers, it's unjust, unreasonable, and unconstitutional, and I hope that the appeals court sees it that way," said Kingston.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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