Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) warned that attempts to remove him as speaker of the House could result in the position being occupied by a Democrat or remaining vacant for potentially a “long amount of time.”
Ms. Greene pointed out that the spending bill “doesn’t secure our border, but funds full-term abortion and trans ideology on our youth. I filed a Motion to Vacate because the House needs a Speaker who’s able to win for Republicans and our constituents,” in a post on social media platform X.
“I think 13 total members ran for speaker before I was elected. It'd be very difficult for anyone to get the votes at this stage, which means that that position would be open for a dangerous, probably potentially long amount of time, which means that Congress is shut down,” he said.
“Now consider what’s going on around the world right now. You know China, Xi is wanting to move on Taiwan. You’ve got Iran threatening to openly attack in a big way, Israel. Russia is marching through Ukraine. I mean if the U.S. House of Representatives shuts down, that is a very dangerous prospect, not to mention the economy and everything else. We’ve got a lot of work to do here.”
Ms. Greene has dismissed warnings from fellow Republicans that pushing out Mr. Johnson could lead to a Democrat, potentially House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.). She claimed that Republicans won’t aid any Democrat in taking the position.
In his interview, Mr. Johnson said that the spending bill wasn’t something he or any Republicans would have drafted if the GOP had a majority in the House and Senate, and the country had a Republican president.
“And so, they know over here that we have a one-vote margin, so I have virtually zero leverage to be able to negotiate and get a better package,” he said.
If the spending bill was not passed, the government would have had to shut down, which “would be very painful for the American people. They would blame the Republicans.”
Mr. Johnson said that shutting down Congress would hurt GOP chances of growing the majority in the chambers as well as President Trump’s presidential chances because “all of our fates in some sense are tied together.”
Democrat Support
As Ms. Greene’s motion to vacate the Speaker looms, Mr. Jeffries recently suggested that Democrats could potentially support Mr. Johnson.“If the speaker were to do the right thing and allow the House to work its will with an up or down vote on the national security bill, then I believe there are a reasonable number of Democrats who would not want to see the speaker fall as a result of doing the right thing,” he told reporters.
The Democrat clarified that this was an “observation” rather than a “declaration” and that any decision on the matter would first require a conversation on the issue.
“As we come back into session, we will be voting on funding Ukraine with another $60 billion dollars. The last time we voted on Ukraine funding was September 28, 2023, and the majority of Republicans voted against giving Ukraine $300 million by 117-101 votes. Mike Johnson was one of the NO votes,” she wrote.
“Recent polling shows that 70 percent of Americans want a peace deal in Ukraine, not to send them more of their hard-earned tax dollars. Yet Mike Johnson is publicly saying funding Ukraine is now his top priority when less than 7 months ago he was against it.”
Mr. Johnson also intends to bring a bill to reauthorize FISA, which she said would allow the Biden administration to “continue spying on hundreds of thousands of Americans illegally.”
In her letter, Ms. Greene expressed hope that Mr. Johnson “ensures any bill to reauthorize FISA includes a warrant requirement.”
