Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) doubled down on her attacks on Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Monday, accusing the House leader of caving to Democrats on border security at the expense of public safety.
Greene has been up in arms that Johnson recently endorsed a massive spending deal with President Biden to fund the government through September — a package that excluded the tougher border security measures many conservatives had demanded.
Heading into another explosive debate, this one over military funding for Ukraine, Greene is amplifying both her opposition to that aid package and the pressure on Johnson to keep it off the floor. Unmentioned but hanging over that imminent debate is Greene’s threat to remove Johnson from power if he contravenes her stipulations.
“If Speaker Johnson gives another $60 billion to the defense of Ukraine’s border after he FULLY FUNDED Biden’s deadly open border, the cruel joke would be on the American people,” Greene wrote Monday on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
“And it won’t be April Fools.”
In a second message posted hours later, Greene highlighted the arrests of immigrants in the country illegally who are accused of violent crimes in Boston, suggesting the Speaker hasn’t fought hard enough against Biden’s border policies.
“Speaker Johnson completely surrendered all power we had in the House to stop horrendous crimes like child rape by illegals when he fully funded Biden’s deadly open border without a fight,” Greene wrote.
The criticisms arrived a day after Johnson acknowledged Greene’s frustrations with the government spending package — frustrations he said he shared — but also defended his negotiations with the Democrats as the simple reality of governing in a divided Washington.
“These are not the perfect pieces of legislation that you and I and Marjorie would draft if we had the ability to do it differently,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Night in America With Trey Gowdy.”
“But with the smallest margin in U.S. history, we’re sometimes going to get legislation that we don’t like.”
Johnson said he’s been in discussions with Greene, via text, and expects to meet with her in person when Congress returns to Washington next week after a long holiday recess.
Greene has been critical of Johnson through virtually all of his short time as Speaker, but she escalated her reproval late last month after he negotiated the spending deal with Biden. In a wave of protest, more than half of the GOP conference voted against Johnson’s deal.
Greene took her frustrations a long step further, introducing a resolution to remove Johnson from power. The Georgia firebrand has not moved to force a vote on her motion to vacate, but Monday’s attacks on Johnson suggest she’ll do so if she objects to his handling of the Ukraine debate. The Speaker has said the House will consider the issue as the next course of business when it reconvenes the week of April 9.
It remains unclear how he intends to proceed. Johnson has opposed a Senate-passed foreign aid package, which included $60 billion for Ukraine, telling Senate Republicans that he plans to move a more conservative House version and send it back to the upper chamber.
He’s also insisted that Congress tackle border security as a part of that debate — provisions Democrats in both chambers are likely to oppose, raising questions about how Johnson intends to move anything to Biden’s desk ahead of the elections.
Heading into that tough debate, the Speaker took a shot of his own at Greene, warning that internal clashes between Republicans will only empower Democrats ahead of high-stakes elections when both chambers are up for grabs.
“I think all of my other Republican colleagues recognize this as a distraction from our mission,” Johnson told Gowdy. “The mission is to save the republic. And the only way we can do that is if we grow the House majority, win the Senate and win the White House. So we don’t need any dissension right now.”