Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) in February 2024 Photo: MCKENZIE LANGE/ Staff / USA TODAY NETWORK
Transphobic Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) finally filed her motion to kick out House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Wednesday evening. A majority of her House Republican colleagues united with 163 Democrats to help defeat her motion immediately in a 359-43 vote, but not before booing her as she introduced the vote.
Boos erupted on both sides of the House chamber as Greene read her resolution, The Hill reported. After defeating her motion, the chamber’s members cheered. Even former President Donald Trump, who Greene deeply admires, said that now is “not the time” to kick out the speaker because it “will be portrayed as chaos” and negatively affect” Republicans’s chances during an election year.
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“I appreciate the show of confidence from my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort,” Johnson said after surviving the vote. “That is certainly what it was.”
Greene filed her initial motion to oust the speaker over a month ago. But as soon as she formally introduced it on Wednesday evening, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-LA) immediately motioned to table her measure, setting up the vote that killed it.
After the vote, Democrats noted that their votes weren’t an endorsement of Johnson — an anti-LGBTQ+ Christian nationalist who helped devise Trump’s plan to overturn the 2020 election — but rather a recognition of his successful compromises and willingness to allow votes on must-pass appropriations bills.
“Our decision to stop Marjorie Taylor Greene from plunging the House of Representatives and the country into further chaos is rooted in our commitment to solve problems for everyday Americans in a bipartisan manner,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said after the vote. “We need more commonsense and less chaos in Washington, D.C.”
Far-right Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) both pledged to support Greene’s effort to kick out Johnson, but they were the only Republicans to do so.
Earlier in the week, Greene met with Johnson in an attempt to get him to agree to four conditions to avoid her ouster vote: only bringing bills to a floor vote if they have support from a majority of the GOP conference (something known as the Hastert rule), not passing any additional aid for Ukraine, defunding special counsel investigations against Trump, and cutting national spending by 1%. Johnson didn’t agree to any of her conditions.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said he was happy to hear that Democrats and Republicans were 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, “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.”
