Last Updated on January 22, 2025
House Speaker Mike Johnson ruined the “motion to vacate” mechanism that is designed to allow congressmen to overthrow a Speaker of the House who has lost the will of the people.
Former congressman Matt Gaetz led a group of House members called the “Courageous 8” to challenge then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy and remove him from power. Initially, it only required one member to introduce a motion to vacate the speaker. However, due to the success of the “Courageous 8,” the rule was changed, and now nine members are needed to file such a motion.
The concept of the motion to vacate can be traced back to “Thomas Jefferson’s Manual of Procedure,” which was officially adopted by the House in 1837 as the standard U.S. House rules. Jefferson’s manual clearly allows for the removal of a Speaker and the appointment of a Speaker pro tempore as needed.
Under the current rules introduced by Mike Johnson, the original intent of Jefferson’s vision is undermined, limiting the ability of the American people to hold influential party leaders accountable through this mechanism.
“Mike Johnson’s First Act as U.S. House Speaker in the 119th Congress: Adopt Nancy Pelosi’s House Rule for Motion to Vacate And Speaker Johnson took Nancy’s rule and made it WORSE! Thomas Jefferson’s Rule: ONE member to file. Nancy Pelosi’s Rule: FIVE members to file. Mike Johnson’s Rule: NINE (9) members to file!,” NATIONAL FILE tweeted on January 3, after Johnson carried out the dirty deed against the American people.
The conspiracy to ruin the motion to vacate kicked off almost as soon as McCarthy got ousted.
As NATIONAL FILE previously reported in October 2023:
Fox News host Sean Hannity proposed eliminating the “motion to vacate” rule that Matt Gaetz of Florida used to overthrow Kevin McCarthy, and Speaker Mike Johnson agreed and said “I think we’re going to change it.” The motion to vacate protects the people against tyranny from party leadership. Sean Hannity infamously tried to get President Donald Trump to concede the 2020 election during election overtime, after Fox News called Arizona early for Joe Biden on election night. The Republican Establishment is clearly worried that the motion to vacate will be used again to inflict more joyful chaos on the political class.
“In the next fourteen months, as you’re going to be the Speaker of the House, assuming the motion to vacate never comes up, which I think is awful. And that shouldn’t be there,” Hannity said.
“I think we’re going to change it,” Mike Johnson said.
“Or have a higher bar, certainly. 25 people instead of just any one member,” Hannity proposed, ignoring historical precedent.
It is true that any member of the House can introduce a motion to vacate, which keeps party leadership honest. It is also true that Matt Gaetz and the Gaetz Caucus scored the first-ever successful motion to vacate a House speaker. The motion to vacate was first used in 1910 when Speaker Joseph Cannon introduced a motion to vacate against himself to bait his fellow Republicans into publicly betraying him. Cannon kept power. NATIONAL FILE publisher Noel Fritsch has covered the motion to vacate issue obsessively over the years, and he is a foremost expert on the House rule that ousted McCarthy.
When Matt Gaetz ousted Kevin McCarthy he did so in a group of EIGHT Republicans. The populists went on to support Jim Jordan, who came extremely close to the speakership but the party bosses blocked him. Notably, the party bosses did NOT block Mike Johnson in the end.
Mike Johnson’s donors include folks from Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Johnson’s first act as speaker was to pass a resolution affirming America’s wide-ranging support for Israel. Thomas Massie voted against Mike Johnson’s resolution because Thomas Massie wants to stop sanctions and possible U.S. troop deployments to a war that we have no business being in.
If the Republican leadership tries to delete the motion to vacate from the books then the people will have less power and the entrenched party bosses will have more power than ever.
