Will Johnson Risk His Speakership Over Ukraine Funding Bill?

U.S. Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) told Meet the Press yesterday that House Speaker Mike Johnson “might risk losing the speakership” over a planned Ukraine funding bill.

Bacon said Johnson is committed told a vote on “supplemental assistance” to Ukraine and that “It is very likely that after this Ukraine bill, we may have a standoff with the speaker.”

Bacon’s comments come as U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has filed a motion to vacate the speakership over Johnson’s recent support for massive appropriations bills.

Taylor Greene is also opposed to the Ukraine funding bills.

Johnson told former U.S. Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), currently host of Fox News’s Sunday Night in America Program, that Taylor Greene’s motion was a “distraction” and that he and Taylor Greene had exchanged texts and are planning a meeting to discuss:

Marjorie’s a friend, she’s very frustrated about, for example, the last appropriations bills. Guess what? So am I. as we discussed, Trey, these are not the perfect pieces of legislation that you and I and Marjorie would draft if we had the ability to do it differently.

While Johnson’s comments referenced the recent appropriations bills, he did not reference the planned Ukraine vote mentioned by Bacon, and which Taylor Greene opposes.

Speaker Johnson is planning to give another $60 BILLION to keep the war raging in Ukraine and go against the will of 70% of the American people.

Even worse, he’s going to suspend the rules to pass it. pic.twitter.com/6VFgLliGmt

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 1, 2024

Taylor Greene also posted on X earlier today:

If Speaker Johnson gives another $60 billion to the defense of Ukraine’s border after he FULLY FUNDED Biden’s deadly open border, the cruel joke would be on the American people.

And it won’t be April Fools.

— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 1, 2024

Rep. Bacon might be correct.

A battle over the speakership might be in the cards over Johnson’s commitment to move another Ukraine funding bill.