Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday encountered stiff resistance from Republicans as he embarked on a complicated and politically perilous strategy to push legislation through the House to send aid to Israel and Ukraine — all while beating back a threat to his own job.
It aims to bring together a complicated mix of bipartisan coalitions and allow different factions in the House to register their opposition to pieces of the aid package without sinking the entire thing.
The strategy has run into a flurry of opposition from members of his own party, including one Republican, Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who on Tuesday announced that he would join a threatened bid to remove Mr. Johnson from the top post.
In a closed-door meeting on Tuesday morning, he stood and told Mr. Johnson that he should announce a resignation date and allow Republicans to choose a new speaker before he relinquished the top post.
Given mounting Republican opposition and the party’s razor-thin majority, it appeared certain that Mr. Johnson would not be able to bring up the bill, which requires a floor vote, without Democratic support.
But Democrats previously helped pave the way for legislation to suspend the debt ceiling, averting the nation’s first-ever default, and have since signaled that they might be willing to come to Mr. Johnson’s aid on issues of critical importance.
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