Chip Roy on Johnson: 'I don't believe he has the votes'
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Tuesday that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) does not have the votes to keep the gavel and that he remains undecided on whether he can support the Louisiana Republican in the Friday floor vote, despite President-elect Trump endorsing Johnson.
"I remain undecided, as do a number of my colleagues, because we saw so many of the failures last year that we are concerned about that might limit or inhibit our ability to advance the president’s agenda,” Roy said Tuesday on "Varney & Co." on Fox Business.
Later, Roy said Johnson does not yet have the support to be Speaker.
"Right now, I don't believe he has the votes on Friday," Roy said.
Several other Republicans — including Reps. Andy Harris (Md.), Andy Biggs (Ariz.) and Victoria Spartz (Ind.) — are continuing to withhold support for Johnson despite Trump’s endorsement. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has said he will vote for a person other than Johnson, has also signaled that Trump’s endorsement did not change his mind.
Johnson can only afford one Republican defection in the Jan. 3 Speaker election, assuming all members are present and voting for a candidate. The House’s incoming 215 Democrats are all expected to vote for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), and Republicans are expected to have 219 members in attendance that day.
Roy floated two alternatives to Johnson: Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.) and Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), chair of the House Judiciary Committee.
"People say, well, Chip, who would you choose otherwise? Mike’s a friend and maybe he can answer the call and deliver an agenda and a plan. Byron Donalds is a good man and a good friend. I nominated him two years ago. Jim Jordan’s a good man and a good friend. There are other members of leadership in the conference who could do the job,” Roy said.
Jordan showed support for Johnson after Trump’s endorsement Monday, and Donalds told The Hill in December that he supported Johnson for Speaker despite his handling of the funding bill.
Roy said that while he “respects” Trump supports Johnson and that he likes Johnson as a friend, he has concerns with a number of actions by the Speaker over the last year — not least of which was the short-term spending deal that went through multiple iterations before final passage ahead of Christmas.
“We violated the 72-hour rule twice, which means we didn’t have time to read a bill. We had to have Elon [Musk] and Vivek [Ramaswamy] and the president and JD [Vance] come in to kill a 1,500-page monstrosity, cut it down to 100 pages. It still spent $110 billion unpaid for,” Roy said.
He later added: "The failure before Christmas, I cannot overstate, it’s a glimpse to come if we don’t organize the conference to be able to deliver for the American people. We are not going to be able to bend on the things that matter. We must cut spending if you want inflation to go down and for people to afford to live in this country."