Rep. Ro Khanna said he would vote to protect Speaker Mike Johnson’s position and table any motion to remove him, because Johnson took the right step in advancing separate bills to support Ukraine,
Israel, and Taiwan rather than lumping them together.
ABC’s Jonathan Karl said, “Congressman Khanna, does Speaker Johnson deserve credit for how this played out?”
While Khanna disagrees with Johnson on many issues and has been critical of him, he gave Johnson credit for prioritizing civility and allowing individual votes on foreign aid, as Khanna had advocated.
Khanna believes this shows American democracy is still strong and that Johnson deserves to keep his job through the end of his term as a result of doing the right thing in this instance.
Khanna said, “He does. Look, we came into Congress together and he always cared about civility. He actually led the civility pledge. And he – we had one issue, which was give individual votes. Don’t lump things together. And I give him credit for doing this. I would actually vote to table any motion to vacate him.”
“You know, Congressman McCaul quoted Churchill. One of the things Churchill said is that America always exhausted every wrong option until doing the right thing. And this shows that American democracy still is very strong.”
Karl said, “You just said something significant. You said you would oppose the tabled – the motion to vacate. In other words, you will protect Speaker Johnson’s job if Marjorie Taylor Greene and the others go through with their threat to try to remove him?”
Khanna said, “I would, through the end of the term. I expect Speaker Jeffries will be there in 2025.
Karl said, “Right – not – speaker, yes. Yes.
Khanna said, “But look, I’m a progressive Democrat and I think you would have a few progressive Democrats doing that. And I disagree with Speaker Johnson on many issues and have been very critical of him. But he did the right thing here and he deserves to keep his job until the end of his term.”
