Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) said Sunday he did not expect Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to face a rebellion from within his party, saying the newly elected Speaker was doing a good job trying to fix the problems left over from the previous leadership.
“I don’t think that most Republicans blame Speaker Johnson for the problems that he is now facing, the challenges he’s facing,” Buck said in an interview on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” with Margaret Brennan.
“Those were created during the McCarthy time period, and Speaker Johnson is doing a good job to work his way through those issues,” Buck said.
Buck, who recently announced he would retire from the House, was one of the eight Republicans who first voted to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from his post.
A longtime member of the House Freedom Caucus, Buck had been critical of the way Washington spends money, but he attributed his vote against McCarthy to the former Speaker’s failure to keep his promises that he made to members in order to win the gavel in the first place.
“I supported Kevin McCarthy in January because I thought he was the person best positioned to keep our promises to our constituents,” Buck said in October about his vote to oust McCarthy. “It’s clear that we need a principled Speaker who can keep his word not just to members of Congress, but to the American people.”
Buck predicted, however, Johnson would not face the same fate, despite Johnson’s two-step continuing resolution bill to avert a government shutdown that had nearly twice as much Democratic support as it did Republican support in the House.
“So no, I don’t think he’s going to face a rebellion. I think he’s going to face support, when he finds ways to reduce our national spending, our $36 trillion debt at the end of next year — $1 trillion of money that is being spent to service that debt,” Buck said.
“Those are real existential issues that America needs to deal with, and I think Speaker Johnson is going about it the right way,” he added.
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Read More: Ken Buck says Speaker Johnson likely won’t ‘face a rebellion’