Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) committed “three betrayals” to lead to the upcoming vote to eject him from the speakership, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said Wednesday.
Massie partnered with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who introduced the motion to vacate in April, to force the vote. They held a Wednesday press conference announcing their move, during which Massie outlined those three betrayals.
Funding Democrat Priorities and Killing Regular Order Through Spending Bills
“The first betrayal was the omnibus bill,” Massie said. “Under Kevin McCarthy, we did seven separate spending bills. And then when Mike Johnson took over, did we start working on the other side? No, you threw the seven in the trash.”
Conservatives had fought for assurances from then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) to return regular order on spending bills. Although McCarthy ushered through a short-term continuing resolution in September 2023 for extra time, he had already assured seven of the twelve appropriations bills had passed.
“All the hard work that we had done, Mike Johnson disposed of and decided to do an omnibus bill – an omnibus bill that spent more than Nancy Pelosi’s omnibus bill (passed in late 2022), an omnibus bill that builds the FBI a brand new building.”
Massie took particular umbrage at Johnson including funding for a new FBI facility due to the agency’s continued stonewalling of constitutional oversight by the Judiciary Committee, on which Massie serves.
“Meanwhile, we’re over here in our Judiciary Committee asking them for answers,” he said. “They mock us, they thumb their noses at us, and why shouldn’t they? We’re going to build them a new building and send them strongly worded letters, as if we’re going to do something about their insolence.”
Empowering Warrantless Surveillance of American Citizens through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)
“A second betrayal of Mike Johnson was passing FISA without warrants,” Massie continued. “Did he do this in a proper way? No.”
Congress had debated the expiring Section 702 provisions of FISA for months, with competing visions held the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. The Intelligence Committee hewed closely to the Biden administration and intelligence state, which opposed reforms that could have required warrants before intel agencies spied on American citizens.
“The authority for the FISA (Section) 702 programs rests with the Judiciary Committee,” Massie insisted. “But Mike Johnson decided to let the Intel Committee run this program.”
Massie was a leader in the fight on both the Rules Committee, on which he also serves, and Judiciary for a vote on warrantless surveillance.
“We got a vote on the floor on warrants, whether you should have to have a warrant to spy on Americans,” he said. “This is a constitutionally redundant vote. It should be obvious to anybody that’s read the Constitution that you need warrants.”
He pushed back on claims from Johnson sympathizers that Johnson did not have the numbers to fight the Biden administration on warrants.
“You can say, well, for Mike Johnson, he’s got such a slim majority. You can’t get everything you want. Marjorie Taylor Greene or Thomas Massie he’s got such a slim majority,” he said. “He was the slim majority that cast the deciding vote that says you can spy on Americans without a warrant. It was 212 to 212, go look it up.”
It is rare for a Speaker to cast a vote on the floor. Nonetheless, Johnson cast the deciding vote to force a tie on the amendment to require warrantless surveillance, striking it from the final bill.
“He didn’t vote on the other amendments,” Massie said. “He went out of his way to vote no on that amendment, and was the deciding vote on FISA without warrants.”
Breaking His Promise to Secure the Border Before Funding Ukraine
“So what was the third betrayal, the third and final betrayal? Nearly $100 billion for foreign wars,” Massie said.
The foreign aid supplemental bill “started out as a veterans bill to give veterans better benefits, HR 815,” Massie pointed out before detailing the shadowy parliamentary procedures taken to force the bill through. “Chuck Schumer stripped every word out of it, put this supplemental in it, and sent it back to the House.”
As Breitbart News reported, Johnson then used a complicated parliamentary scheme to exploit the urgency in Congress to pass aid to Israel to force through Ukraine funding.
“They pretended like we voted on four separate bills,” Massie said. “And after those votes passed, they changed them to amendments and concurred with the Senate bill and sent it back to the Senate.
“This whole thing was pre-conferenced with [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer.”
Collusion with Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden
Massie ended by pointing out that all three of Johnson’s marquee “accomplishments” in only six months were done through close collaboration with Schumer.
“Why is it that on all three betrayals the Senate didn’t change a word of these bills when they went to the Senate from the House?” he asked. “It’s because Mike Johnson was doing Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden’s bidding.”
He continued:
They didn’t need to change a word any of these bills. Chuck Schumer fought against all the amendments. He wanted those bills exactly as Mike Johnson had passed them, exactly as Mike Johnson had promised: FISA without warrants, an omnibus with the new building for the FBI, and $100 billion of foreign aid with no border security in it. As Ms. Greene said, our border is wide open, wide open. This was our last chance for leverage, and the speaker gave it all up.
Massie explained what Jeffries has to gain by endorsing Speaker Johnson:
Now why would Hakeem Jeffries endorse a Republican Speaker? Aren’t they arch rivals? I mean, what does Hakeem Jeffries one after all? He wants an open border. He wants to increase spending. He wants to take back the majority. And most of all, he and the Democrat conference here want President Trump to lose. Who do they think can deliver on all four of those things? Mike Johnson will deliver these things for them: increased spending, open borders, a loss of our majority, and a loss for President Trump.
He spoke of the Democrat response to Johnson passing Ukraine aid, during which Democrats broke House decorum by waving Ukraine flags on the House floor. The House Sergeant at Arms, overseen by Johnson, did not fine the offenders. However, he did threaten to fine Massie for posting a video of the flag waving, before walking it back after extreme blowback, ostensibly at Johnson’s request.
“We sat here and watched the total capitulation with the Democrats waving flags – it was premeditated – of another country, not the American flag,” he said. “You know, Mike Johnson should have brought the white flag and waved it in front of us. Because it was a complete capitulation. It was a humiliation not just to us, but to all the American people who pay their tax dollars only to see them go overseas, fund foreign wars, secure other country’s borders without securing our borders.
Massie said Republicans would have the weekend to contemplate before the vote.
“Are you going to embrace Hakeem Jeffries, like Mike Johnson has? Are you going to embrace the uniparty like Mike Johnson has when you come back next week? Are you going to fight for Americans who gave us the majority?”
Bradley Jaye is a Capitol Hill Correspondent for Breitbart News. Follow him on X/Twitter at @BradleyAJaye.
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