House Republicans Consider Forcibly Removing Paul Ryan From Office
House Republicans are considering filing a “motion to vacate the chair” to remove House Speaker Paul Ryan from the speakership.
Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, told Breitbart News Tonight that this motion to forcibly remove the speaker comes from Ryan’s many attempts to undermine President Donald Trump.
“It’s kind of odd that he has as much power as he has,” King said. “But I do predict, and it is happening, that that power is diminishing. I also have got information that there are — I’ll say ‘members’ — I say that plurally, with knowledge, that are considering introducing a motion to vacate the chair.”
“If they do that, that will throw this place into a tizzy and force the kind of election for a speaker that may bring out someone who is a lot stronger on this.”
If House Republicans call forth the motion, Ryan will be forced into early retirement in a way similar to his predecessor. Former House Speaker John Boehner stepped down from his position after facing pressure from Republican members of the house, CNN reported at the time.
In a recent conference meeting with House Republican members, Ryan told them that the president supports his amnesty bill. Trump said the opposite on an interview with “Fox & Friends” Friday morning, even though he is “looking at both” Ryan’s moderate immigration proposal and Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte’s.
“I certainly won’t sign the more moderate one,” Trump said, according to Fox News. “I need a bill that gives this country tremendous border security.”
Ryan rattled Capitol Hill in April when he announced he will retire from the House after nearly 20 years in Congress, telling reporters he wanted to spend more time with his family and pursue other opportunities. Since his announcement, King said that Ryan’s influence has been diminishing.
“From the time that Paul Ryan announced that he would be retiring at the end of this Congress, his juice has been diminished day by day by day,” King told Breitbart News Tonight. “It’s not a personal thing. It’s just a function of how things work. He has less power, less influence, and yet he’s still leading us into this amnesty piece. People are acting like he’s the Speaker of the House who will be deciding who can chair which committees, who can be seated on which committees, and whose bills move forward in the next Congress. But that will not be the case.”
Ryan has not been shy in voicing his discontent with Trump’s policies. In early June, he rebuked the president for the tariffs the White House is slapping on steel and aluminum imports from Europe, Canada and Mexico, which Trump say would protect American jobs.
“I disagree with this decision. Instead of addressing the real problems in the international trade of these products, today’s action targets America’s allies when we should be working with them to address the unfair trading practices of countries like China,” Ryan said, according to CBS News.
If the motion for Ryan to vacate the chair is introduced and voted on, Ryan may not win a re-election to continue his speakership for the rest of the year. One House GOP aide whose member sits on the House Appropriations Committee told Breitbart News that the member was advised to vote against a vote for Ryan to remain in his position.
“Ryan is in trouble, and his opposition to the president and his agenda growing more clear and loud especially on a hot-button issue like immigration is putting him in deeper danger,” Breitbart reported.
In May, the Washington Examiner reported that the plans to force Ryan out of office have been laid before the president, an unnamed source said that Trump “believes there is merit to the plan, but has not formed a final position.”
Ryan has said he will not step down as speaker. “I’ve talked to a lot of members who think it is in our best interest for me to stay here and run through the tape,” Ryan said.
Others have said the party needs Ryan to step aside.
“We would have more success if there’s no ambiguity as to what the leadership structure might look like,” Georgia Congressman Tom Graves said last month, Politico reported. “Certainty is important. … From the conversations I’ve had, everybody wants our ‘A team’ in place, our strongest team in place, so we have the strongest outcome going into the election cycle.”
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