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Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) has expressed serious doubts about Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) ability to retain his gavel.
Despite receiving the highly coveted endorsement of President-elect Donald Trump, Johnson faces a storm of skepticism from within his own party, just days ahead of a crucial floor vote.
On Monday, President Trump made a surprising endorsement for House Speaker Mike Johnson to be reelected, as he faces challenges from other GOP lawmakers.
Trump praised Johnson as a “good, hardworking, religious man” and the right choice to carry forward the America First agenda.
Appearing on Varney & Co. on Fox Business, Roy did not mince words about Johnson’s precarious position.
Roy laid bare the chaos that unfolded in the final days of 2024. He detailed how Congress violated its own 72-hour rule—not once, but twice—forcing lawmakers to vote on a 1,500-page spending bill without adequate time to review its contents.
Even after whittling it down to a more digestible 100 pages with intervention from high-profile allies like Elon Musk and JD Vance, the bill still committed $110 billion in unfunded spending.
Roy acknowledged Johnson’s close ties to former President Trump but made it clear that loyalty alone is not enough.
Roy also floated potential alternatives, such as Representatives Byron Donalds (R-FL) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), while emphasizing the need for a unified GOP strategy.
Transcript:
Ashley Webster:
Is Mr. Johnson going to have the support to keep his role as Speaker? What do you think?
Chip Roy:
Well, good morning, Ashley, and Happy New Year to all the listeners and viewers out there. Look, Victoria is a good friend, and Thomas is a good friend, and they raise reasonable concerns. I remain concerned. I remain undecided, as do a number of my colleagues, because we saw so many of the failures last year that might limit or inhibit our ability to advance the President’s agenda.
I respect, like Thomas, that President Trump supports Mike. I like Mike—he’s a good friend. But let’s consider what happened the week before Christmas.
We violated the 72-hour rule twice, which means we didn’t have time to read a bill. We had to have Elon and the Beck and the President and JD come in to kill a 1,500-page monstrosity and cut it down to 100 pages. It still spent $110 billion unpaid for.
My colleagues say, “Oh, but that’s all just discretionary spending.” We also passed $200 billion that is taking money out of Social Security to transfer it, which will hasten the bankruptcy of Social Security by six months.
That was all the week before Christmas, Ashley. That’s a problem. That’s not how we should do business. We racked up $300 billion of additional deficit spending after the election. We spent $1.7 trillion last year with more Democrat votes than Republican votes. We gave another $61 billion to Ukraine.
My friend Victoria, she’s from Ukraine—she has a heart for the Ukrainian people—but she understands giving $61 billion to Ukraine after Mike Johnson promised to secure the border first is a problem. So we need to have a plan before January 3rd. The Speaker needs to speak to it if he wants to have all of our support.
Ashley Webster:
Yeah, and I have to follow up at this point, Congressman. Does he have that support or not?
Chip Roy:
Right now, I don’t believe that he has the votes on Friday, and I think we need to have the conference get together so that we can get united. People say, “Well, Chip, who would you choose otherwise?”
There are a lot of great members of Congress. 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 supported him. I nominated him two years ago. Jim Jordan is a good man and a good friend.
There are other members of leadership in the conference who could do the job.
But what we need to do is unite around a plan to deliver for the President. Right now, I do not believe the conference has that. The failure before Christmas, I cannot overstate, is a glimpse of what’s to come if we don’t organize the conference 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 we want inflation to go down and for people to afford to live in this country. We have to secure the border. We can’t be going back and forth on that.
We have to give the tools to Tom Homan, the President, and Steven Miller to secure the border, and we’ve got to have the plans in place by Friday.
WATCH:
NEW: Rep. Chip Roy threatens to blow up Speaker Mike Johnson’s confirmation, a move that would directly oppose Trump’s endorsement.
Republicans have a slim majority, meaning any opposition could halt the confirmation.
Trump is increasingly concerned that Republican opposition… pic.twitter.com/OMm9QVBU3w
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) December 31, 2024
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