Mike Johnson Completely Blindsided by Resignation in His Own Party
Representative Ken Buck took to social media to announce his near-immediate leave from Congress, resigning so fast that even his party leaders were caught off guard by the decision.
“Today, I am announcing that I will depart Congress at the end of next week,” Buck said in a statement on Tuesday. “I look forward to staying involved in our political process, as well as spending more time in Colorado with my family.”
The less-than-two-weeks notice took practically everybody by surprise, including (or maybe especially) House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“I was surprised by Ken’s announcement,” Johnson told a crush of reporters inside the Capitol building. “I look forward to talking to him about that.”
“I didn’t know,” he added.
Speaker Mike Johnson was caught off guard by the announcement from Ken Buck retiring early.
— Haley Talbot (@haleytalbotcnn) March 12, 2024
“I was surprised by Ken’s announcement. I look forward to talking to him about that,” he told reporters.
He said he did not know in advance: “I did not know.” pic.twitter.com/7egUzQcBRg
The Freedom Caucus member originally announced his intention to retire in November—though he had not indicated he would leave before the end of his term.
The loss is a huge problem for House Republicans, who have tried and failed to galvanize their caucus to pass party objectives for months. Buck’s resignation will trim the Republican tally in the House even more, bringing it to just 218 members and leaving behind an impossibly thin one-seat majority, given other vacancies.
The prolific GOP critic, meanwhile, took the resignation as an opportunity to serve one more dunk on his conservative colleagues.
“It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I’ve been in Congress,” Buck elaborated to CNN, describing the current iteration of the lower chamber as “dysfunctional” and the “worst year in 40, 50 years.”
“Instead of having decorum, instead of operating in a professional manner, this place has just devolved into this bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people.”