Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene revealed she will force a vote to oust Speaker Mike Johnson next week after Democrats said they would come to the rescue.
‘Next week I am going to be calling this motion to vacate,’ she announced to reporters Wednesday morning.
‘Absolutely calling it. I can’t wait to see Democrats go out and support a Republican speaker and have to go home to their primaries. And have to run for Congress again, having supported a Republican speaker, a Christian conservative, I think that’ll play well. I’m excited about it.’
The Republican firebrand brought props to her news conference: a ‘MUGA’ hat for Make Ukraine Great Again and shots of Johnson and Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries smiling, hugging and both holding the gavel.
On Tuesday night Johnson hit back at Greene, telling NewsNation she is ‘not proving to be’ a serious lawmaker.
Greene holds a ‘MUGA’ hat – ‘Make Ukraine Great Again’
He once again brushed off her threat.
‘I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about her,’ the speaker said. ‘I got to do my job, and we do the right thing, and we let the chips fall where they may. That is my philosophy. That is how we are governing.’
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who has joined Greene in her bid to wrest the gavel from Johnson, insisted Greene is the ‘most serious representative up here.’
While many fellow Republicans have insisted throwing the House back into chaos in an election year could have political consequences, Greene claimed it would be Johnson who loses House Republicans the majority.
‘We’re not going to have a House majority [next year] if we keep Mike Johnson,’ she said.
Greene said she ‘couldn’t wait’ to put her fellow Republicans on record for whether they support Johnson and the bipartisan legislation he has put on the floor recently or whether they were willing to ‘fight.’
‘Can’t wait to see my Republican conference show their cards and show who we are. Because voters deserve it. Is the is the Republican Party – have they finally learned their lesson? Have they finally heard the message from voters back at home? Are they willing to actually fight? Are they going to just keep going along to get along?’
Greene filed her motion to vacate in late March after Johnson put a pair of bipartisan year-long spending bills on the floor to fund each agency of government and has been waiting in the wings to take the speaker down ever since.
In recent days her fellow detractors have grown frustrated over Johnson putting legislation to fund Ukraine to the tune of $61 billion and to reauthorize warrantless spying through FISA Section 702 on the House floor.
A game-changing memo circulated among House Democrats Tuesday morning, essentially deflating Greene’s headline-grabbing threat: ‘We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed.’
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene revealed she will force a vote to oust Speaker Mike Johnson next week after Democrats said they would come to the rescue
A successful vote to table the motion prevents it from proceeding to a final vote.
Greene, in response, said she will force a vote on the House floor.
‘Mike Johnson is officially the Democrat Speaker of the House. Here is their official endorsement of his Speakership. What slimy back room deal did Johnson make for the Democrats’ support?’ she wrote on X.
‘If the Democrats want to elect him Speaker (and some Republicans want to support the Democrats’ chosen Speaker), I’ll give them the chance to do it.’
‘I’m a big believer in recorded votes because putting Congress on record allows every American to see the truth and provides transparency to our votes. Americans deserve to see the Uniparty on full display. I’m about to give them their coming out party!’
Democrats have made it official: they will come to the rescue of Speaker Mike Johnson should Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene force her motion to oust him to the House floor
A game-changing email circulated among House Democrats Tuesday morning, essentially deflating Greene’s headline-grabbing threat: ‘We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed’
Two other Republicans, Massie and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., joined on to Greene’s effort after he put $60 billion in Ukraine funding on the House floor.
A handful of others, Reps. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., and Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., have refused to say how they would vote. Johnson could only afford to lose two GOP votes and remain speaker if he did not have Democratic help.
Their leader being saved by Democrats did not sit well with hardliner Republicans, though most declined to commit to joining Greene on her sinking ship.
‘It’s really sad, it’s disturbing. I don’t know where we go from here,’ Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told DailyMail.com of Johnson’s liberal bailout. ‘Some of us are wondering if this is not like a psy-op for the democrats. They’re gonna say we support you in public because they want at the end of the day for him to be vacated. Don’t know if it’s like 4-D chess.’
‘In some ways, it’s almost like they’re just trying to push her to do it’ and launch the motion, said Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala. ‘I would like Speaker Johnson to be willing to do more of our agenda so they wouldn’t be willing to save him.’
‘It’s just strange. They didn’t come for [former Speaker Kevin] McCarthy but they’re coming to keep him,’ Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., mused.
McCarthy notoriously said former Speaker Nancy Pelosi had promised him Democrats would help him if a Republican filed a motion to vacate. In the end none did.
Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who voted to vacate McCarthy said he would not support kicking out Johnson, and didn’t think Democrats saving him would matter in the end.
‘I think it’ll be another week that’ll be difficult and we’ll all forget about it.’
Democrats are offering their motion to table in return for Johnson putting Ukraine aid on the floor.
‘I don’t think we give these things away for free,’ Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., told reporters.
‘I do think that the vote on Ukraine aid has weighed heavily on many members of the caucus. I also think the fact that the person bringing the motion is Marjorie Taylor Greene, which has also felt like, who are we going to vote throw our support for, which is a rock and a hard place for a lot of members.’
Johnson told reporters he had not spoken to Democrats about saving him and did not cut any deals with them to do so.
‘This is the first I’ve heard of it,’ he said.
But Democrats swooping in to save a Republican speaker could have political implications down the line.
Asked if he was comfortable being saved by Democrats, Johnson said: ‘You hope you have the support of everyone, the entire country. ..The speaker of the House serves the whole body. I am a conservative Republican, a lifelong conservative Republican.’
The last motion to vacate that ended Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s career left the House paralyzed for three speakerless weeks. ‘We want to turn the page,’ insisted Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar. ‘We don’t want Marjorie Taylor Greene to dictate the schedule.’