Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) warned on Monday that there could be dire consequences for the entire country if Republicans in Congress did not oust John Boehner as Speaker of the House and elect him instead.

In an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum, Gohmert explained that he had announced over the weekend that he was running for the job of House Speaker because Boehner had not fought “tooth and nail” to stop a recent budget bill.

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“What we do in the next two years, it’s likely going to determine whether we get a Republican or not in 2016,” the Texas congressman insisted. “For the Speaker to run in and pass the [budget bill] that totally funds Obamacare for all next year — we took the hostage of the Homeland Security — that was a huge mistake.”

“For Boehner to rush in when we had the control of the Senate coming into our hands this month, this week, and to make a deal with [Obama] that funds everything that Obama wanted for the year except Homeland Security is like [General] Custer saying, ‘Come on boys, let’s attack now before help gets here.'”

Gohmert predicted that up to 30 percent of Republicans could “abandon” the party if Boehner was not ousted as Speaker.

“They are so fed up that we are not fighting for what we said, and if we don’t show them that, it’s going to devastate this country,” he remarked. “We could have another Democratic president in 2016. We have got to show the American people that they don’t need to abandon the Republican Party. There are people in the party that are willing to stand up and fight for the very things we promised we would do.”

“And we can do those things. We can put Obama on the defensive just by completely getting rid of the Internal Revenue code,” Gohmert added. “We can do that.”

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Watch the video below from Fox News, broadcast Jan. 5, 2015.