John Boehner's future as Republican House Speaker is on shaky ground and his actions in the coming months will determine whether he get the ax, says Rep. Mark Meadows, the GOP lawmaker who introduced a measure to oust him earlier this year.
"Really there is no line in the sand, no limited time on when or how [a vote to fire Boehner] would be done," Meadows said Wednesday in an interview with
The Hill. "Probably the best way to say that is there are three or four [factors], and they are all running on parallel tracks."
Among the issues the Ohio Republican will be judged on by House conservatives are how he responds to the battle to defund Planned Parenthood, the fight over the federal budget and the ongoing push to quash the Iran nuclear deal.
Meadows told The Hill that any of Boehner's House enemies could call for a vote to have him ousted at any time. They include Reps. Walter Jones of North Carolina and Louie Gohmert of Texas.
"It's just something that all 435 members have available to them," said Meadows, who this summer was stripped of his Oversight subcommittee duties after defying Boehner on a trade vote, only to be reinstated when members of the Freedom Caucus squawked.
Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, asked about a possible vote to oust Boehner, told The Hill:
"The Republican Party is a deeply divided party … But we're not going to react to it until, you know, until something happens. It's pretty much a Republican fight, and they're going to fight about it among their ranks, and we'll see what happens."