Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Speaker Mike Johnson’s days in charge of the House are numbered after he pushed through a massive Democrat-backed spending bill for Ukraine that most Republican members opposed.
On Saturday, Johnson (R-LA) pushed through a trio of foreign aid bills, including an additional $60 billion to help Ukraine in its war with Russia that the majority — 112 members — of the speaker’s own caucus opposed. Instead, Johnson and a group of 101 Republicans relied on Democrats, who were unanimous in supporting Ukraine aid, to overcome the opposition.
Along with last week’s passage of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act reauthorization bill, the Ukraine bill was the last straw for Johnson’s right flank, including Greene (R-GA), who accused Johnson of being part of an alliance with Democrats that is hostile to the American people.
In a post on X, Greene asserted, “Mike Johnson’s Speakership is OVER!”
She listed off the ways she believed the speaker had helped defeat his own party’s agenda:
“He has betrayed Republicans by handing the gavel to Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem Jeffries, and the rest of the Democrats. He betrayed us on border security. He betrayed us on funding endless foreign wars. He betrayed us on FISA. He betrayed us on fully funding Biden’s DOJ. And Mike Johnson did it all by working with the Democrats. It’s time for him to resign, so Republicans can elect a Speaker who will work for our party.”
Johnson had previously defended his record on some of the issues cited by Greene, noting that the House had passed a border security package that has stalled in the Democrat-controlled Senate, per a Fox News clip Greene included in her post on X.
Greene has been joined by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Paul Gosar (R-AZ) in expressing the position that Johnson should have at least used the foreign aid as leverage to advance the border security priorities the speaker said were languishing, per the Fox News clip. Both congressmen have indicated they would support Greene in her push to oust Johnson.
In the Fox News clip, host Maria Bartiromo asked Greene to respond to critics in her own party who have accused her of creating “drama” within the Republican ranks. Bartiromo noted that such drama could cost the party in an election year.
“Those that are calling this drama are the very people that are responsible for the drama that the American people are having to live through every single day,” Greene responded.
She blamed the bipartisan coalition that passed the bills, what she called the “uni-party,” for dismissing the American people’s concerns.
“Those on the left, those on the right, the uni-party that’s in control of our government, are the ones that have inflicted the American people with nearly $35 trillion in debt, ripped their border wide open, and … Speaker Johnson refuses to use his powers as speaker in the House to do any type of negotiating to secure the southern border and stop the madness in our country. The people criticizing me are not the American people. The American people agree with me, and I’ve talked to them, and I’ve seen it all over. They are outraged,” she said.
“It’s one big uni-party that serves the world first and America last,” Greene added.
If Greene follows through with a motion to vacate the chair and force Johnson out, Johnson could likely again rely on support from Democrats. Unlike when his predecessor, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), became the first speaker in history to be ousted by a vote, some House Democrats have said they will oppose such a motion.
“What Marjorie Taylor Greene and what Thomas Massie and what Paul Gosar are trying to accomplish by removing the speaker of the House in this very moment after October 7 would only embolden China, it would only embolden Russia, [and] it would only embolden Iran,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) said on Fox News Sunday.