House votes to overturn Marjorie Taylor Greene’s attempt to unseat House Speaker Mike Johnson

Washington- Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene followed up her threat to try to unseat House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday, calling for a vote on a motion to remove the speaker from the House floor, which lawmakers quickly voted to table. , that is, eliminate it, in an impressive scene that marked a great change from the previous day and put an end to the threat hanging over the speaker.

“The form of the resolution is this: declare the office of speaker of the House of Representatives vacant,” the Georgia Republican said, as many in the House booed her. “This is the one-party game for the American people watching.”

Shortly after Greene advanced the motion, prompting an early vote, the House voted 359-43 to table the motion. Most Democrats joined most House Republicans in doing so. Only 11 House Republicans voted against the motion to introduce it.

Greene’s move marked a change from the previous day, when she appeared to walk back her threat to trigger a vote to impeach Johnson.

“Right now the ball is in Mike Johnson’s court,” Greene had said after meeting with the spokesman on Tuesday.

But Greene moved forward Wednesday night and, in doing so, organized an early vote that was due to take place within two legislative days on whether Johnson should remain president. Within minutes, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise made a motion to table Greene’s effort.

Going into voting, Greene had the public backing of only two other House Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona. Meanwhile, Democrats had vowed to save Johnson after he pushed a foreign aid bill through the House last month.

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries explained in “60 minutes“Why Democrats would be willing to save Johnson’s presidency. “Our view traditionally would be, ‘Let the other side solve their own mess,'” Jeffries said. “But when that mess starts affecting the ability to get the job done on behalf of the American people, then the responsible thing to do at that moment might be for us to make it clear that we will not allow extremists to throw Congress and the country into chaos.”

He also suggested that, given Johnson’s slim majority as president, House Democrats are enormously powerful. “Even though we are in the minority, we have been effectively governing as if we were in the majority because we continue to provide the majority of the votes needed to get things done,” he said. “Those are just the facts.”

Greene has been threatening Johnson since March, after he relied on Democrats to push a $1.2 trillion spending bill to avoid a partial government shutdown. Johnson met with Greene twice in as many days this week, where he said he made a list of demands to step down. And Greene has faced intense pressure from his Republican colleagues to change course.

Former President Donald Trump said in a social media post Wednesday that “this is not the time” for an override motion and offered support to Johnson, calling him a “good man who is trying very hard.” He added: “I also wish certain things were done during the last two-month period, but we will do them together.”

The threat to Johnson’s presidency came just months after former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted in a historic vote that marked the first time a president was removed from office during a legislative session. Eight House Republicans joined all Democrats in voting to impeach him, leading to a weeks-long effort within the Republican conference to select McCarthy’s replacement.

McCarthy’s ouster was motivated by similar frustrations from members of his conference, who opposed his decision to work with Democratic lawmakers to keep the government funded. But the chaos that ensued when the House remained without a speaker for weeks, along with the reality that Johnson generally enjoys more goodwill among his conference than his predecessor, appeared to make lawmakers less willing to make the same decision this time. .

Speaking to reporters after the vote, Johnson defended himself as a “lifelong Republican movement conservative” and said the nation “desperately needs a functioning Congress.” The Louisiana Republican called Greene’s attempt to unseat him “misguided.”

“Hopefully, this is the end of the personality politics and frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress,” he said. “It’s unfortunate. It’s not about who we are as Americans, and we’re better than this. We need to get over it.”