Current:Home > NewsRep. Tom Cole says "the reservoir of goodwill is enormous" for House Speaker amid effort to oust him-LoTradeCoin
Rep. Tom Cole says "the reservoir of goodwill is enormous" for House Speaker amid effort to oust him
View Date:2024-12-23 19:59:31
Washington — Rep. Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican who leads the House Appropriations Committee, said Sunday that despite a growing threat to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, he's "much stronger than people seem to think," noting that "the reservoir of goodwill is enormous."
"I actually think he's, you know, empowered the center and marginalized the extremes on each side," Cole said on "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "Now, is there some risk for that? Sure. But the point is, he's gotten a lot done. I think people admire him. They genuinely like him."
- Transcript: House Appropriations Committee chair Rep. Tom Cole on "Face the Nation," April 21, 2024
The Louisiana Republican has faced pushback in recent weeks for his handling of the government funding process, prompting Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, to file a motion to vacate, threatening to bring up a vote for his ouster. That frustration was bolstered by his shepherding of a foreign aid package that the House approved on Saturday, which some conservatives also opposed. And though Greene has yet to commit to a timeline for bringing up a vote on Johnson's removal, she's gained some backers in recent days.
The effort to oust Johnson now has three public Republican supporters: Greene, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona, who announced his support for the effort on Friday. Republicans have a razor-thin majority at the moment, so Johnson can only afford to lose one vote unless they get support from Democrats.
But Cole made clear that "it's a relatively small number" of Republicans who would support a motion to oust Johnson, saying he doesn't anticipate that "we'd lose the same number of Republicans that we lost with Kevin McCarthy," who was last year the first speaker to be removed from his post in October under similar circumstances.
"There's a lot of people that like the speaker, that respect the speaker, even when they disagree with him," Cole said. "They know he's honest, he's a straight shooter. They also had a taste of what it's like to go without a speaker for three weeks. I don't think they want that again."
Joining the eight Republicans who voted to boot McCarthy from the post was every Democrat. And the same might not be true for Johnson. Cole said he doesn't believe there's unified Democratic support to remove Johnson, saying that it's unlikely for Democrats who supported the foreign aid package, particularly its aid for Ukraine, to vote to oust the speaker.
"I think both sides have now seen how dangerous this is, how irresponsible it is," Cole said. "But if somebody wants to do it, it's within the rules and they can take their shot."
Kaia HubbardKaia Hubbard is a politics reporter for CBS News Digital based in Washington, D.C.
TwitterveryGood! (938)
Related
- Chris Wallace will leave CNN 3 years after defecting from 'Fox News Sunday'
- Love Is Blind's Irina Apologizes for Her Immature Behavior on the Show
- Andy Cohen Teases Surprising Vanderpump Rules “Turns” Before the Reunion
- How a Hot Glue Gun Became TikTok's Most In-Demand Makeup Tool
- 'SNL' stars jokingly declare support for Trump, Dana Carvey plays Elon Musk
- See Dua Lipa’s Epic Transformation into a Mermaid for Barbie
- As Extreme Heat Kills Hundreds, Oregon Steps Up Push To Protect People
- Late Model Jeremy Ruehlemann’s Girlfriend Mary-Brian Clarke Unexpectedly Dead at 24
- South Carolina lab recaptures 5 more escaped monkeys but 13 are still loose
- The White House Wants To Fight Climate Change And Help People. Cleveland Led The Way
Ranking
- Advance Auto Parts is closing hundreds of stores in an effort to turn its business around
- Pope Francis meets young cancer patients at hospital before his expected discharge after abdominal surgery
- Canada Battles More Than 180 Wildfires With Hundreds Dead In Heat Wave
- The Devastating Drought Across The West Could Mean An Increase In Farmer Suicides
- Sofia Richie Reveals 5-Month-Old Daughter Eloise Has a Real Phone
- What's The Best Way To Help The Climate And People, Too? Home Improvement
- Andy Cohen Shares Juicy Details About Tom Sandoval & Raquel Leviss' VPR Reunion Reckoning
- Mother of 4 children lost in Amazon for 40 days initially survived plane crash, oldest sibling says
Recommendation
-
Oprah Winfrey denies being paid $1M for Kamala Harris rally: 'I was not paid a dime'
-
Flood Deaths Are Rising In Germany, And Officials Blame Climate Change
-
Everything I Got at Ulta's Sale That I’d Paid Full Price For: St. Tropez, Iconic London, Tarte, and More
-
Love Is Blind's Bliss Got Into a Fight With Irina Over Grilled Cheese That Didn't Make the Show
-
Jamie Lee Curtis and Don Lemon quit X, formerly Twitter: 'Time for me to leave'
-
Ukraine says 10 killed in Dnipro as Russia attacks civilians with counteroffensive pushing forward
-
A Coal-Mining 'Monster' Is Threatening To Swallow A Small Town In Germany
-
Blinken meets China's Xi Jinping in Beijing, says both countries agree on need to stabilize relations