Johnson caught between warring House GOP factions: ‘Drifting toward mob rule'

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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., is finding himself in the crossfire of feuding House GOP factions, with Republican lawmakers at odds over a path forward on government spending.

"I would say the regular order crowd, people who don't like drama and don’t like dumpster fires, are concerned that maybe we're drifting toward a little bit more mob rule," one GOP lawmaker told Fox News Digital. "Their temperatures are getting up pretty high….I would say Mike's got to be concerned with that crowd as well."

Tensions have erupted in the House of Representatives already, less than halfway through the first month of 2024.

A group of 12 conservatives staged a protest vote on Wednesday that tanked a normally sleepy procedural measure in a pointed shot at Johnson over his deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., aimed at avoiding a government shutdown.

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Those GOP hardliners have since been pressuring Johnson to go back on the agreement, a move that has angered both moderate Republicans and rank-and-file conservatives.

"If all you’re here to do is rant and rave and scream, why’d you come?" conservative Rep. Greg Murphy, R-N.C., told Fox News Digital of that group. "I don’t scream if I’m in the operating room and don’t have the right equipment, I make it work."