Members of the House Freedom Caucus are watching Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., with a wary but hopeful eye after a GOP rebellion over government spending saw the new leader take his first major public setback.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018He assures us, and we trust him that that\u2019s the case,\u2019 Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital of Johnson\u2019s goals to cut spending and advance conservative policies.<\/p>\n
Norman added, \u2018Now, if that\u2019s not the case, then I mean, we\u2019re going to get cuts either way. We\u2019re gonna start taking rules down. We\u2019re just not going to keep going like this. We\u2019re just not doing it. Whatever it takes.\u2019<\/p>\n
Long-standing fractures within the House GOP Conference, primarily over government spending, rose to the surface again this past week after Johnson passed a short-term spending bill known as a continuing resolution (CR) to avert a government shutdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018I\u2019ve been very public about it, I think it was a mistake\u2026 and I think it was not in the best interest of trying to force Democrats to the table on the things we need to do,\u2019 Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018Bottom line is, he\u2019s been in three weeks, he\u2019s a good friend, he\u2019s a good man. I\u2019ll fully get behind him, you know, if we pick a fight, we\u2019ll go fight. Let\u2019s rock and roll, move forward,\u2019 Roy said.<\/p>\n
Roy and Norman were two of 19 Republicans who tanked a procedural vote, known as a rule vote, on the spending bill dealing with the Departments of Justice and Commerce on Wednesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry, R-Pa., another opponent of Johnson\u2019s CR who voted to kill the rule, told reporters afterward, \u2018We\u2019re sending a shot across the bow. We do this in good faith. We want to see these bills move. We want to see good righteous policy. But we\u2019re not going to be part of the failure theater anymore.\u2019<\/p>\n
Norman said his vote against the rule was as much a protest vote as it was about his opposition to the spending bill itself.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Johnson\u2019s predecessor, ex-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted by eight Republican hardliners and all Democrats after putting a clean CR on the floor. But the conservatives who spoke with Fox News Digital insisted that Johnson is taking a different approach than McCarthy had \u2014 for now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018It\u2019s not in his nature to just listen at the beginning and then fade into the habits of just convening leadership meetings, and not listening to the people. He\u2019ll be that listening speaker who continues to solicit the input of the rank-and-file moving forward,\u2019 Freedom Caucus member Rep. Ben Cline, R-Va., who voted for the rule, told Fox News Digital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2018That confidence\u2026 among us, the rank and file members, is going to help him as he moves forward.\u2019<\/p>\n
Norman similarly praised Johnson: \u2018We trust Mike\u2026 he laid it out, and he just was honest with us. We never had that with McCarthy.\u2019<\/p>\n
Though he warned, \u2018This country is in trouble financially. There will be no difference between McCarthy and Johnson if the spending continues. We\u2019ve got to come up with some solution.\u2019<\/p>\n
Roy would not comment directly on comparisons between McCarthy and Johnson, explaining, \u2018I\u2019m not interested that much in rehashing all of this. It is what it is. We are where we are, and we need to move forward.\u2019<\/p>\n
But the Texas Republican suggested that he saw the House GOP as largely in a similar spot as it was a month ago, before Johnson took charge \u2014 not that he blamed him.<\/p>\n
\u2018What I would say is, there was a lot of noise for a month and change for us to end up with a CR,\u2019 Roy said. \u2018There\u2019s a whole lot of noise, there\u2019s a whole lot of bluster, but we kind of got off track. And now we\u2019ve got to figure out how to get back on track fighting.\u2019<\/p>\n
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., another Freedom Caucus member who voted to advance the failed spending bill but against the CR, told Fox News Digital of Johnson, \u2018I\u2019m withholding any kind of judgment because I think it\u2019s hard to imagine, if I was in his shoes, being able to find or devise a plan that\u2019s different.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018The real test will be when it comes to FISA reauthorization or when it comes to finding a path on these appropriations bills,\u2019 he said. \u2018What I think is the real fight is not between the conference and Mike Johnson, it\u2019s the conference against the conference.\u2019<\/p>\n\n
Members of the House Freedom Caucus are watching Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., with a wary but hopeful eye after a GOP rebellion over government spending saw the new leader take his first major public setback.\u00a0 \u2018He assures us, and we trust him that that\u2019s the case,\u2019 Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital of <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":11806,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11805","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}