Yesterday, the Democratic leadership announced that they would vote to save Mike Johnson if Marjorie Taylor Greene went ahead with her threatened motion to vacate the chair. Marge is having a temper tantrum over it:
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced Wednesday she will move ahead with her attempt to oust Speaker Mike Johnson from the House’s top job — though her plan seems doomed to fail.
The Georgia Republican, who first introduced a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair in March, held a high-energy news conference outside the U.S. Capitol to say she will trigger a vote on the House floor next week.
“Mike Johnson is not capable of that job,” she said. “He has proven that over and over again.”
Greene, joined by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, aired a litany of grievances she has with Johnson, who she described as a Democratic speaker working against former President Donald Trump’s agenda. At one point, Greene donned a red “Make America Great Again” hat as she addressed reporters and denied she was defying Trump, who hosted Johnson at Mar-a-Lago last month and said he was doing a “good job.”
Greene and Massie were flanked by two blown-up poster boards featuring photos of Johnson embracing House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
She criticized Johnson for working across the aisle to avoid a government shutdown, passing a FISA extension and his recent ushering of $95 billion in foreign aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan through Congress. She called them three “betrayals” against the GOP caucus.
Johnson released a short statement in response to Greene’s continued threat to try to remove him.
“This motion is wrong for the Republican Conference, wrong for the institution, and wrong for the country,” Johnson said.
Greene’s press conference came one day after House Democratic leadership announced that if a motion to vacate Johnson is brought to the House floor for a vote, they would vote to table the effort — effectively saving the speaker from ouster.
The motion to vacate is unlikely to succeed as most Republicans have joined Democrats in vowing to spike it.
Greene has already passed up several opportunities to force a vote on her motion, which she said she initially filed as a warning to Johnson.
Still, Greene said she wanted lawmakers to go on record on this issue.
“I think every member of Congress needs to take that vote and let the chips fall where they may,” Greene said. “And so next week, I am going to be calling this motion to vacate. 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.”
Greene continued, “And I also can’t wait to see my Republican conference show their cards and show who we are because voters deserve it.”
Asked why Greene is pledging to move forward with this in defiance of Trump, Greene told ABC News’ Correspondent Elizabeth Schulze, “We have to have a Republican majority in January and under Mike Johnson’s leadership we are not going to have one.”
Apparently, she has a few votes to advance it to the floor but Democrats plan to help Johnson kill it before it ever gets there. I doubt this good deed will go unpunished by the House Republicans but I guess they figure it looks better for them if they are not seen as aiding and abetting Greene in her quest for attention.
I’m not really sure what she hopes to accomplish but it sounds as though she thinks they’re going to lose in November and she will be in a position to blame Johnson and other “RINOs” for it. Or something …
Here’s the showboater and her henchman Thomas Massie this morning: