Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) on Friday doubled down and said he still plans to vote for someone other than Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) in the House Speakership vote on January 3.
“I will vote for someone other than Mike Johnson. I’m not persuaded by the ‘Hurry up and elect him so we can certify the election on J6’ argument,” the congressman said, explaining that a “weak legislative branch, beholden to the swamp, will not be able to achieve the mandate voters gave Trump and Congress in November.”
He also shared the results of a poll he took on X, which asked if members of Congress should vote for Johnson or someone else. With 179,495 votes cast, the overwhelming majority — 93 percent — said Congress should vote for “someone else.” Only seven percent said lawmakers should vote for Johnson.
Massie became the first House lawmaker to announce publicly that he would not support Johnson following the speaker’s disastrous and wasteful spending bill, which made countless Republicans uneasy, asserting that it was incompatible with the mandate the American people gave them in November.
The original 1,537-page continuing resolution (CR) negotiated by Johnson was full of pork, including a pay raise for members of Congress. Several Republicans in both the House and Senate bristled, and Rand Paul categorized Johnson as a “weak, weak” man.
“I’ll vote for somebody else,” Massie said following the release of the original measure. “I’ve got a few in mind. I’m not going to say yet.”
Even President-elect Donald Trump weighed in, confessing he was “totally against” the original CR.
“The most foolish and inept thing ever done by Congressional Republicans was allowing our country to hit the debt ceiling in 2025,” Trump and Vice President-elect JD Vance said in a joint statement. “It was a mistake and is now something that must be addressed.”
It continued:
Meanwhile, Congress is considering a spending bill that would give sweetheart provisions for government censors and for Liz Cheney,” the statement continued. “The bill would make it easier to hide the records of the corrupt January 6 committee — which accomplished nothing for the American people and hid security failures that happened that day. The bill would also give Congress a pay increase while many Americans are struggling this Christmas.
Increasing the debt ceiling is not great but we’d rather do it on Biden’s watch,” the statement continued. “If Democrats won’t cooperate on the debt ceiling now, what makes anyone think they would do it in June during our administration? Let’s have this debate now. And we should pass a streamlined spending bill that doesn’t give Chuck Schumer and the Democrats everything they want.
Ultimately, Johnson went to a plan C to avert a government shutdown after a rejection of his original deal, but he still managed to deliver a gift to Democrats ahead of Christmas by extending spending levels. For further perspective, no Democrats actually voted against the renegotiated measure.
It remains unclear how many Republicans plan to vote for someone other than Johnson in the Speakership vote, but some have hinted that they are now open to other options.
