Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Sunday said House Speaker Mike Johnson “betrayed” Republican voters after the House approved new aid to Ukraine, threatening to call a vote for his ouster if he doesn’t resign.
“Mike Johnson’s speakership is over. He needs to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process. If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated,” Greene said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”
After months of resisting putting a foreign aid bill on the House floor, Johnson joined with Democrats on Saturday to advance a $95 billion foreign aid package, which contains $61 billion for Ukraine and regional partners. The legislation – which passed with the support of 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans – now heads to the Senate, which is expected to give final approval this week.
Should Greene and her supporters make good on their threat to force a vote on ousting him as speaker, Johnson will almost certainly need to rely on Democrats to bail him out.
The Georgia hardliner is one of at least three Republicans who have said they will support a move to oust Johnson — whose majority is so slim he cannot afford to lose any Republicans on a party-line vote.
Johnson maintains that he has not asked any Democrats for their help, but senior Republicans believe they will be able to count on support across the aisle to swiftly kill any motion to vacate the speaker’s chair – a feeling that may have bolstered Johnson’s confidence in pressing ahead with his plans.
It is still unclear whether Democrats will throw him a lifeline. But they have expressed a willingness to save Johnson, especially after he defied his right flank to move ahead with a foreign aid package that closely resembles a Senate-passed version.
Rep. Ro Khanna said Sunday that he would vote against a motion to remove Johnson from the speakership. “I’m a progressive Democrat and I think you would have a few progressive Democrats doing that,” Khanna said on ABC’s “This Week.”
“I disagree with Speaker Johnson on many issues and I’ve been very critical of him, but he did the right thing here and he deserves to keep his job till the end of this term,” said the California Democrat, who added that “not everything in politics needs to be transactional.”
Asked why she held off on the motion to vacate on Saturday, Greene claimed Sunday that she’s “been responsible with this the entire time” but suggested that the move will happen.
“All of this was possible because of the betrayals of Mike Johnson,” Greene said.
Johnson, for his part, dismissed the prospect of an ouster effort Saturday night. “I don’t walk around this building being worried about a motion to vacate,” he said after the foreign aid package passed.
“I have to do my job. … I’ve done here what I believe to be the right thing to allow the House to work its will. And as I’ve said, you do the right thing, and you let the chips fall where they may.”
CNN’s Annie Grayer, Melanie Zanona, Manu Raju and Rashard Rose contributed to this report.
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