House Speaker Mike Johnson issued a message to Republicans who are gunning for seats of sitting GOP lawmakers, telling those in contentious primaries to “knock it off” to prevent further division within the party.
While Johnson (R-LA) was attending the House Republicans’ annual member retreat at the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, last week, he attempted to unify the conference as at least four sitting Republicans in South Carolina, Illinois, Texas and Virginia are going to battle against Republican challengers.
“I’ve asked them all to cool it,” Johnson told CNN during the retreat. “I am vehemently opposed to member-on-member action in primaries because it’s not productive. And it causes division for obvious reasons, and we should not be engaging in that.”
“So I’m telling everyone who’s doing that to knock it off,” Johnson told the outlet, referring to challenging incumbents within the GOP. “And both sides, they’ll say, ‘Well, we didn’t start it, they started it.’”
Johnson’s concerns come as he attempts to guide the razor-thin majority in the House through a series of legislative hurdles that divide Republicans, including whether or not they should provide military aid for Ukraine, the path to finish government funding, and whether to reauthorize a federal surveillance program, while simultaneously attempting to convince voters that they should re-elect a GOP House majority.
Johnson won the speakership late last year after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted from office, the first time a Speaker has been ousted from his position. Republicans have been frequently at odds within the House since the move, and deep division exists within the party.
Last week, Johnson expressed his intent to stay at the helm of the House GOP next year regardless of whether they keep the House majority.
“I have not given a lot of thought about the next Congress, because I’m so busy with my responsibility right now,” Johnson said. “My intention is to stay as speaker, stay in leadership, because we’re laying a lot of important groundwork right now for the big work that we’ll be doing.”
The post House Speaker Mike Johnson Tells Republicans In Contentious Primaries To ‘Cool It’ To Decrease Division appeared first on Resist the Mainstream.
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Author: John Symank
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