4 votes or a majority...which is where the 4 likely comes from.
If they need 4 votes, the recusals don’t seem to mean much. If they get 4 votes from the remaining judges, they would have had a majority even with the two who recused themselves voting. The recusals just remove two more chances to get to 4. If they jack st need a majority of the 5 voting, of course, things are different.