GOP Marjorie Taylor Greene issues new threats to oust Speaker Johnson with scathing rebuke
WASHINGTON — Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is escalating her criticism of House Speaker Mike Johnson, blasting his leadership in a lengthy letter to colleagues and renewing threats of a snap vote that could remove him from office.
As lawmakers returned to work Tuesday after a two-week spring recess, the Georgia congressman’s new attack dragged the still-new chairman back into the Republican chaos that has defined Republican House control and threatens to bring work to a standstill. It’s entirely possible that Johnson can’t do the basics of his job.
“Today I sent a letter to my colleagues explaining exactly why I filed a motion to remove Chairman Johnson,” Greene said on social media about the procedural tool that could force a quick vote.
Greene warned Johnson in stark terms against asking Democrats for the votes he would need to pass pending legislation that far-right Republicans oppose, especially aid to Ukraine. That aid package and other agenda items are under discussion.
“I will not tolerate this type of Republican ‘leadership,’” Greene, a top ally of presumptive presidential nominee Donald Trump, wrote in the five-page letter first reported by The New York Times.
The impasse threatens to return the House of Representatives to a deadlock, leaving the Republican majority with a “do nothing” label after months of unrest that sent some veteran lawmakers to the exits.
It comes during what is typically a spring legislative push to set a few priorities before lawmakers turn their attention to the November election campaigns.
For Johnson, who took over just six months ago after the House of Representatives ousted Kevin McCarthy from the post of speaker, it is political reward for his efforts to keep the government running by compromising with Democrats on legislation which must be passed to fund federal operations and prevent a shutdown. .
A partnership with Democrats is about the only way Johnson can pass bills, despite a slim majority and stubborn resistance from his right flank. With most votes, he could hardly lose more than one Republican from his ranks.
Greene, who made the motion to fire the speaker before lawmakers left for spring break in March, has not said she would call it up for the vote and her next steps are uncertain.
Other Republicans, even some of the eight who voted to impeach McCarthy, the California Republican who has since retired from Congress, have cooled Greene’s efforts in an effort to avoid another spectacle. McCarthy’s impeachment left the House of Representatives closed for virtually a month last fall as Republicans argued over a new leader.
And Democrats led by Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York have indicated they may lend their vote to Johnson, a courtesy they did not extend to McCarthy, which could save the Louisiana Republican’s job in a bipartisan effort to take the House open and functioning.
But Greene left clear the threat hanging over Johnson if he pursues a partnership with Democrats, during a splashy town hall in her home district in Georgia on Monday and in the scathing letter delivered Tuesday as lawmakers returned to work.
In the letter, she outlined the promises she said Johnson had made to Republicans during the race to become chairman, and listed ways she said he had broken those promises — for example, by passing the spending bills needed to to fund government with existing policies that many Republicans oppose. , or by failing to include legislation in Republican proposals to secure the U.S.-Mexico border.
“This has been a complete and total surrender to, if not complete and total lockstep with, the Democrats’ agenda that has so angered our Republican base and given them very little reason to vote for a Republican House majority.” , she wrote.