Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she will force a vote to remove House Speaker next week
ATLANTA (WANF/Gray News/AP) - Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Wednesday she will call for a vote to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson next week.
Greene held a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol Wednesday morning. With her was Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., one of the few lawmakers to join her effort.
“We need leaders in the House of Representatives that are going to get this done,” said Greene, R-Ga., holding up a red “MAGA” hat from Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign movement.
“Mike Johnson is not capable of that job,” she said.
The standoff with Greene, one of Trump’s most enthusiastic supporters, risks throwing Republican control of the House into a fresh round of chaos.
Johnson, in his own statement, said Greene’s move was “wrong for the Republican Conference, wrong for the institution, and wrong for the country.”
For weeks, Greene has been threatening a motion to remove Johnson from the speakership, notably criticizing Johnson’s support of a military spending bill that sent hundreds of millions of dollars to Ukraine’s defense against the Russian invasion.
On Tuesday, House Democratic leadership said they will push back against what they called “MAGA extremism” and unite with Republicans to protect Johnson from an attempt by the northwest Georgia congresswoman to oust the Louisiana Republican from the speakership.
“For months, House Republicans irresponsibly delayed critical security assistance to our democratic allies in Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific, while simultaneously blocking humanitarian assistance to civilians in harm’s way in places like Gaza, Haiti and the Sudan,” House Democratic leaders - including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York - said in a statement. “Thanks to a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans, led by President Biden, we were finally able to meet the national security needs of the American people.”
Greene has been rumored to be a possible running mate for Trump as he attempts to retake the Oval Office he lost four years ago to President Joe Biden, a field that could include U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-New York; former director of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson; U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Florida; South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem; U.S. Sen. J.D. Vance, R-Ohio; Tulsi Gabbard, former U.S. representative from Hawaii; U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida; U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-South Carolina; North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum; U.S. Sen. Katie Britt, R-Alabama; and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, among many others.
Johnson’s public opponents are few, at this point, and less than the eight that it took to oust now-former Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last fall in the first ever removal of a sitting speaker from the powerful office that is second in the line of succession to the president. Just one other Republican, Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, has joined Greene’s effort.
Greene and Massie said they were giving their colleagues the weekend to weigh their options before calling for the vote on her motion to vacate next week.
“Are you going to embrace Hakeem Jeffries like Mike Johnson has?” said Massie, before a poster photo of Jeffries handing Johnson the gavel when the Republican first became speaker last fall.
“They’ve got a weekend to think about it, but more importantly, Mike Johnson has a weekend to think about it.”
The turmoil has gripped a House already essentially at a standstill. Johnson has been unable to command his razor-thin majority to work together on party priorities and has been forced him into the arms of Democrats for the votes needed to approve most big bills — and now, to keep his job.
Trump has given a nod of support to Johnson, who dashed to the former president’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida last month to shore up backing.
Other Republican leaders, including Trump’s hand-picked head of the Republican National Committee, Michael Whatley, have urged House Republicans to hold off the removal effort before the fall election that will determine which party controls the White House and Congress.
In a private meeting Tuesday, Whatley urged House Republicans to unite around their shared priorities. He delivered the same message later in the day to Greene, telling her that trying to remove Johnson was not helpful, according to a person familiar with the conversations who was not authorized to discuss them publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was pleased the threat of ousting the speaker did not appear to be gaining traction.
“I am relieved, as I think all of America is, that the chaos in the House will be discontinued,” said McConnell, R-Ky.
While the Democratic leaders have said they would provide the votes to table Greene’s motion when it comes forward, essentially shelving it for now, it is not clear that all Democratic lawmakers would join that effort.
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