Rep. Greene (R-GA) speaks on May 1, 2024. Photo: Josh Morgan-USA TODAY via IMAGN
Congressional Republicans are “sick and tired” of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and they plan to help defeat her resolution to kick out House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), which she promised to formally introduce “next week, absolutely.” The defeat would help sink her outsized far-right influence in the House just six months before she’s up for re-election.
She’s especially outraged that Johnson allowed a vote on a bill giving Ukraine $60 billion for its continued defense against Russia’s military invasion. She has repeatedly blasted Johnson on the social media platform X for allegedly siding with Democrats in aiding Ukraine and undocumented immigrant “illegals.”
She has also vowed to force a floor vote to oust Johnson, so she can see where every member of her party stands. With only six months left until the general election in November, some Republicans have worried that kicking out the Speaker will further expose the chaos in the House Republican Conference and threaten the party’s chance to retake Congress and the presidency. Republicans took three weeks to elect a new speaker after kicking out the last one late last year, bringing all congressional business to a halt.
“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,” Greene has said. “Americans deserve to see the Uniparty on full display. I’m about to give them their coming out party! … Now we have Hakeem Jeffries and the Democrats coming out, embracing Mike Johnson with a warm hug and a big wet sloppy kiss.”
Far-right Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) have both pledged to support Greene’s effort — they’re the only Republicans who have said that they’ll do so.
However, Greene’s motion to kick out Johnson may not even make it to the floor for a vote. Yesterday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (R-NY) announced that Democrats would help defeat any motion to oust Johnson.
“The time has come to turn the page on this chapter of Pro-Putin Republican obstruction,” House Democratic leaders said in a statement on Tuesday. “We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed.”
Fellow House Republicans have signaled they’re willing to join Democrats to end Greene’s plan too.
“I think people are sick and tired of chaos and dysfunction. So I congratulate all of our friends on both sides of the aisle in the House for … actually doing their job instead of all of the sideshow,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a member of the Senate leadership team. “Republicans are by and large tired of all the antics and the chaos, and they realize it’s a political liability.”
Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) told CNN last week that Greene is “dragging our brand down,” adding “She — not the Democrats — are the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority.”
Scott Jennings, a GOP strategist, told The Hill, “I just sense that you had an overwhelming bipartisan majority in both chambers that are tired of having their lives run and ruined buy a tiny minority of the Republican conference. None of these people get elected to go to Washington, D.C., so they can have their lives upended daily by Marjorie Taylor Greene. It’s not why they worked so hard to get to Congress or the U.S. Senate.”
Even Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he’s happy to hear that Democrats and Republicans are uniting to defeat Greene. “I’m relieved as I think all of America is that the chaos in the House will be discontinued,” he said. “I think it’s a benefit to our country, a benefit to the House, a benefit to the reputation of Congress.”
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) called her move a “mistake,” adding “I consider Marjorie Taylor Greene to be my friend. She’s still my friend. But she just made a big mistake. To think that one of our Republican colleagues would call for his ouster right now — it’s really, it’s abhorrent to me, and I oppose it.”
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) said, “It’s not only idiotic, but it actually does not do anything to advance the conservative movement. And in fact, it undermines the country and our majority.”
Even former President Donald Trump has publicly voiced support for Johnson, saying, “I think [Johnson is] doing a very good job. He’s doing about as good as you’re going to do, and I’m sure that Marjorie understands that. She’s a very good friend of mine, and I know she has a lot of respect for the speaker.”
On the same day that Trump said that, Greene referred to Johnson as a liar who is “full of s**t.”
Greene and far-right Republicans changed House GOP rules in 2023 to make it easier to vacate the House speakership. Since then, far-right members have had an outsized influence by continually threatening to do so if he displeases them. The growing Republican opposition to Greene shows that her far-right influence is on the wane, and that politicians actually want to govern rather than just let fringe members showboat and stall business in the legislature.
“I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about her,” Johnson recently said about Greene. “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.”
