The Wall Street Journal editorial board on Friday challenged Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC), chair of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, to “announce an immediate challenge” to House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) if his group is “plotting a coup.”
“Why wait?” the board wrote in an editorial. “If the Freedom Caucus is upset enough to contemplate a mid-session leadership coup, let’s get it on now.”
The board said any such challenge would have “the added advantage of being a stab in the front for a change.”
“The Freedom Caucus specialty is the stab in the back,” the board said. “Clearly it’s time for Mr. Meadows to step into the spotlight and take some leadership responsibility.”
The board said “the honorable act” would be for Meadows “to announce an immediate challenge to Mr. Ryan surrounded by his Freedom Caucus supporters and Mr. Bannon’s Breitbart staff,” referring to former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who left President Donald Trump’s administration in August.
“If Mr. Meadows wants to stage a coup, he should do it publicly by putting his agenda and strategy front and center for everyone to see,” the board said. “Take the dagger out from under the toga, Mark, and show your colleagues that lean and hungry look. Then let’s hold a vote.”
The House Freedom Caucus drove former House Speaker John Boehner (R) out of office in 2015, but Meadows on Friday said he had no such plans for Ryan.
“There is no plan, there is nothing there,” he said. “And I can tell you that if I was working on a plan to depose the speaker, you wouldn’t be reading about it in the press.”
