Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., said Thursday that even though he’s one of the members who pushed House leaders to vote on defunding Planned Parenthood, he won’t participate in a coup against House Speaker John Boehner.
Several Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus have been warning they might try to oust Boehner if he fails to guide the House through key votes on spending, the Iran nuclear deal and abortion provider Planned Parenthood in a way that satisfies them.
But on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal Thursday, Roskam said he won’t play a part in that.
“I think that’s a very bad idea,” he said. “I want John Boehner to be speaker, I think he’s done a good job under incredibly difficult circumstances, and attempts to remove the speaker and a motion to vacate the chair, in my opinion, are counterproductive, and I won’t participate in it.”
When asked why, he said he feared the chaos that would ensue if Republicans made a move to get rid of Boehner.
“Number one, I think he’s done a good job,” he said. “Number two, to vacate a chair is simply to say, just to have essentially procedural chaos, and I’m not for that.”
“By and large, my view is we’re much better off with John Boehner as speaker, and I wholeheartedly support him,” he added.
While Roskam is not in the House leadership, he has a relatively close relationship with the leadership team. He had a leadership post in the last Congress, and ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La. for the whip job.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., earlier this year introduced a resolution to vacate the speaker’s chair, but later said he was still considering whether to push for its consideration.
