Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) moved to force a vote on ousting Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday, a momentous move that is all but certain to fail amid opposition from Democrats and conservative Republicans.
Greene — who filed her motion to vacate against Johnson more than a month ago — called her resolution to the floor as privileged on Wednesday, forcing GOP leadership to move on the measure within two legislative days.
Lawmakers are expected to quickly motion to table the removal resolution, which is poised to be successful after a large number of Republicans and Democrats said they are against the ouster gambit.
Only two other Republicans — Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Paul Gosar (Ariz.) — have backed her effort.
Greene triggered her ouster resolution — the same used to remove former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in the fall — after weeks of dangling the threat over Johnson’s head as she criticized his decisions on a number of legislative undertakings.
The Georgia Republican denounced Johnson’s decision to package a government funding bill, a measure to reauthorize the U.S.’s warrantless surveillance powers and, most recently, a foreign aid package that included billions of dollars in aid for Ukraine.
Greene met with Johnson for hours on Monday and Tuesday, during which she laid out a list of demands for the Speaker, including only bringing bills to the floor that have support from a majority of the GOP conference, a practice known as the Hastert rule; committing to not passing any additional aid for Ukraine; defunding special counsels, including Jack Smith, who is investigating former President Trump; and imposing a 1-percent spending cut across the board if Congress does not complete its regular appropriations process by Sept. 30.
Johnson told reporters “we’re working through a lot of ideas and suggestions” but did not publicly commit to the requests before Greene triggered her motion.
Members of both parties booed Greene when she went to the floor Thursday and made clear she was moving forward with trying to oust Johnson. Greene said the booing was evidence of the “uni-party” of Democrats and Republicans that she has criticized.
