House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has ordered the GOP's rival factions to "cool it" as sitting members target one another with primary challenges.

Republicans loyal to former Speaker Kevin McCarthy are looking to exact revenge for his ouster last year, even as hardliner Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the ringleader of that effort, continues to make waves targeting moderate members. 

The party can only afford to lose two votes after recent retirements and the GOP-backed expulsion of George Santos, whose seat flipped in a special election last month.

Johnson's order

The infighting has frustrated leadership, leading Johnson to issue a formal warning to the rank-and-file.

“I’ve asked them all to cool it,” Johnson told CNN. “I am vehemently opposed to member-on-member action in primaries because it’s not productive. And it causes division for obvious reasons, and we should not be engaging in that."

“So I’m telling everyone who’s doing that to knock it off. And both sides, they’ll say, ‘Well, we didn’t start it, they started it."

The primary war is a continuation of last year's historic battle between McCarthy and a group of rebellious Republicans who voted for his ouster.

Those who voted to oust McCarthy, such as Bob Good (R-VA) and Eli Crane (R-AZ), have been targeted by the former Speaker's allies, and they're owning the backlash as proof of their outsider status.

“You know how this town works,” Crane told CNN. “You can’t come up here and just start making waves and not pay for it, right? So the way I see it is good. It just reaffirms that I’m doing what I came here to do.”

Gaetz takes center stage

Meanwhile, Matt Gaetz is taking center stage again as he targets moderate incumbents like Tony Gonzalez (R-TX), who voted for gun reform after the Uvalde shooting. Gonzalez's primary challenger, Brandon Herrera, is a gun rights activist with a popular following on YouTube.

In another primary battle in Illinois, Gaetz is on the other side of the man he claims to champion - Donald Trump.

Gaetz is seeking to oust Trump-endorsed Republican Mike Bost, who screamed at Gaetz on the House floor during McCarthy's historic, marathon battle for the Speaker's gavel last year.

Bost said that Gaetz is primarily interested in self-promotion. But Gaetz says he's holding the GOP accountable to its voters.

"I would love nothing more than to just go after Democrats,” Gaetz told CNN. “But if Republicans are going to dress up like Democrats in drag, I’m going to go after them too."