House Speaker Mike Johnson (R‑LA) declined to move forward with a rule change that would make it more difficult for him to be ousted by his fellow Republicans, turning down requests from some lawmakers to increase the threshold and avoid another contentious speaker’s race.
Reports surfaced early Thursday that Johnson was considering a change to House rules to make it more difficult to vacate the speakership as he faces a threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R‑GA) to oust him from the top leadership position. However, Johnson sought to quell those rumors in a statement after several members came out in opposition to that plan.
“Recently, many members have encouraged me to endorse a new rule to raise this threshold,” Johnson said in a post on X. “While I understand the importance of that idea, any rule change requires a majority of the full House, which we do not have. We will continue to gove …