WASHINGTON — Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky called on U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson to resign during a closed-door meeting of GOP lawmakers on Tuesday, throwing more uncertainty into that chamber just months before the November elections.

Massie told reporters after the meeting and just before a Johnson press conference he believed the votes exist to remove Johnson as speaker when a vote is called. He didn’t say when that would happen or who he thinks could secure the votes needed to become speaker.

“The motion will get called,” Massie said, referring to a floor vote on Johnson. “And then he’s going to lose more votes than Kevin McCarthy. And I have told him this in private, like weeks ago.”

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican who was unanimously elected to the leadership post in October after a small group of GOP lawmakers ousted former Speaker McCarthy, rejected Massie’s call to quit, as did several Republicans.

“I am not resigning. And it is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion,” Johnson said “We’re simply here trying to do our job.”

Removing Jonson from the leadership position less than six months into his tenure comes shortly after the House passed two government funding packages on broadly bipartisan votes in March and just as the House prepares to vote on emergency aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan later this week.

Israel is engaged in a war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip and was attacked by Iran over the weekend, while Ukraine continues to defend itself from a Russian invasion.

Johnson, speaking at a press conference during which he only took one question, said removing him as speaker would throw a wrench into a chamber that needs “steady hands at the wheel” to address domestic and global issues.

“Look, I regard myself as a wartime speaker. I mean, in a literal sense,” Johnson said. “I knew that when I took the gavel. I didn’t anticipate that this would be an easy path.”

Johnson repeated comments from former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who he said posted on his social media that “this is the hardest challenge that’s faced a speaker probably in the history of the country.”

“He said, arguably, maybe comparable to the Civil War, but maybe worse,” Johnson said, referring to the period between 1861 and 1865 when Southern states seceded from the United States in an attempt to preserve slavery of Black people. The death toll from the war is estimated at 620,000.

Johnson then spoke about the narrow margin that GOP leaders have in the House, which currently holds 218 Republicans and 213 Democrats.

“A single-vote margin at a difficult time when the nation is terribly divided,” Johnson said. “The way we get through that is we show unity and we explain how we have answers to all these great challenges.”

Former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee for president this fall, is on trial in a New York state criminal courtroom facing charges of falsifying business records. Trump would oppose President Joe Biden this fall in what has been so far a bitter campaign.

Johnson appeared with Trump at Florida’s Mar-a-Lago on Friday and appeared to get the backing of the former president, possibly insulating him from efforts to remove him as speaker.

Greene motion to vacate

Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a motion to vacate the speaker post in March, just before the House left on a two-week break.

Unlike the motion to vacate that Florida GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz filed against McCarthy last fall, this one was not intended to be “privileged,” meaning that it didn’t force a vote within two days. Greene has not said when she may push for a floor vote.

Massie said that Johnson’s actions as speaker, including advancing bipartisan bills that have been able to move through the Democratically controlled Senate and garner Biden’s signature, are key reasons he wants to remove him from power.

Massie said that Johnson should publicly announce that he would resign once the conference decides on a successor, or that he should announce a future date for his resignation. That would allow the House GOP Conference to have a smooth transition without the weeks of stalemate and drama that marked the that followed the ousting of McCarthy.

Border security demands from GOP

South Carolina GOP Rep. Ralph Norman said following the House Republican meeting that he respects Massie, but disagrees with his actions.

“The last thing this country needs is to throw a speaker out, even though I disagree with what he’s done,” Norman said. “I wouldn’t put the country through that, so I’m against that.”

Numerous House Republican lawmakers in the meeting, Norman said, made it clear to Johnson that something must be done to address border security.

Louisiana Republican Rep. Garret Graves said following the meeting he doesn’t believe a floor vote on the motion to vacate Johnson from the speaker’s office is imminent.

“I don’t think that the threat is really real at this point just because you don’t have an alternative,” Graves said. “You have a loosely affiliated coalition government at this point. You’re not going to get a majority of votes for any new person. And for that reason, I don’t think they’re going to go through with it at this point.”

House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, said he’s “not too worried about Speaker Johnson,” despite Massie’s calls for resignation.