Democrats and Republicans in the House don’t often agree on much, but an overwhelming majority of lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle are in agreement that Speaker Mike Johnson should not be removed from his post.
Firebrand Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia put forth a motion to vacate the speaker, just as Florida Representative Matt Gaetz did for former Speaker Kevin McCarthy earlier this year.
This time, though, not only were a majority of Republicans not on board with the move, most Democrats in the House weren’t either.
On Wednesday night, the House swiftly voted to block Green’s efforts to remove Johnson from the speaker role. The vote the House took Wednesday tabled the measure, which eventually killed Green’s efforts, by a vote of 359-43. Only 11 Republicans voted against tabling the measure.
Following the vote, Johnson himself said Greene’s efforts were “misguided.”
As he said:
“I want to say that I appreciate the show of confidence for my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort. I’ve made clear here every day, I intend to do my job, I intend to do what I believe to be the right thing, which I was elected to do. And I’ll let the chips fall where they may.”
For weeks now, Greene threatened to trigger a motion to vacate against Johnson over him working on bipartisan measures to fund the federal government and also send foreign aid to Ukraine.
Greene’s efforts triggered many bitter divisions within the GOP conference in the House, as multiple members were opposed to removing Johnson.
Even though she lost this battle, Greene didn’t rule out trying to force another ouster vote against Johnson at some point in the future. She even referred to a post that former President Donald Trump made on his social media platform that he would support such an effort at some point.
Following Wednesday’s vote, Trump posted to the Truth Social platform:
“At some point, we may very well be [voting to remove Johnson], but this is not the time.”
Greene pounced on that statement, saying of Trump:
“He also said in that statement that we may have to vacate, and that’s something that I think people need to pay attention to.”
Reporters then asked Greene whether she thought Trump was wrong to urge GOP members to table the vote for now. She replied:
“I stand with President Trump. I support President Trump. I’ve talked to him every day about this.”
CNN reported that many members of the GOP leadership in the House were caught off guard by Greene forcing the vote. She met with Johnson and Representative Thomas Massie multiple times earlier in the week, allowing Greene to voice her concerns with the leadership Johnson was exhibiting and also share her own priorities.
The House was just about to recess for the week when Greene surprised everyone and pulled up her motion to vacate, which started a two-day clock for leaders in the GOP to hold a vote.
