The game of chicken going on between Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) just got turned up a notch.
Greene has now vowed to force the motion to vacate to a floor vote next week, but Johnson has a little surprise for her.
Talking Points…
- Greene vows to floor vote
- Johnson given protection
- Analysis
The battle between Rep. Greene and Speaker Johnson has not died down at all after Donald Trump expressed his support for Johnson last week. Since Greene usually does whatever Trump says, seeing her continue to go after Johnson like this was a bit of a surprise, but she is not backing off.
When Greene had initially made the motion to vacate, she stated it was more of a threat to Johnson to get him to change his ways. After the latest round of legislation passed with more Democrat support than Republican, and even though Trump defended Johnson, Greene stated this week that she will move forward. She stated:
"We need leaders in the House of Representatives that are going to get this done.
"Mike Johnson is not capable of that job."
Greene went on to say that the vote will take place next week and that "every member of Congress needs to take that vote." Greene will not be happy to learn that her vote is now likely to fail. We already know only a handful of Republicans will vote in favor of the motion, but that would have been all she would have needed if every Democrat voted in favor of the motion. However, she does not have all the Democrats either.
Democrat leadership, including Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), and Democratic Caucus Chairman Pete Aguilar (D-CA), have all stated they will block Greene's effort. And as we have seen before by Jeffries, the caucus all follows his lead. Together, they said:
"The time has come to turn the page on this chapter of Pro-Putin Republican obstruction. We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed."
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) also recently did an interview in which he stated he would try to block such a motion if it came to the floor for a vote. This is not a good sign for Greene, but it is not exactly a ringing endorsement for Johnson, either. In fact, Greene is already trying to spin that narrative, accusing Johnson of making a "slimy backroom deal" with Democrats.
Dems have no reason to want to remove Johnson because he is passing their agenda right now. He is getting Senate legislation led by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and pushing it through, usually with more Democrat support than Republican, so why would Dems want to mess with that right now? By keeping Johnson in play, they can continue to pass legislation rather than lose the remainder of the term while the GOP fights it out to see who the new Speaker would be. Rep. Boebert even addressed this, stating:
"It makes no difference to me if it's Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker or Mike Johnson right now. I mean we're passing the Democrat agenda anyway."
Now, do I like what Johnson is doing? Absolutely not, but at the same time, if there is another successful motion to vacate, it would all but ensure that the GOP gets voted out of control of the House come November, and that might now happen regardless based on the chaos and dysfunction of the House right now. If we win the White House, take back the Senate, but lose the House, look no further than this posturing as the reason why.
