Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Sunday maintained that she plans to follow through with an effort to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson if he doesn’t resign following the chamber’s passage of a $95 billion package that includes foreign aid to Ukraine.
“Mike Johnson’s leadership is over. He needs to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process,” Greene, R-Ga., said during an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.” “If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated.”
Asked whether she plans to move forward with her motion to vacate Johnson, Greene said, “It’s coming regardless of what Mike Johnson decides to do.”
Reached for comment about the House’s changing posture toward a motion to vacate, Johnson’s office directed NBC News to recent remarks from the speaker, which included Johnson saying on Saturday that he doesn’t walk around the Capitol “being worried about a motion to vacate.”
“I have to do my job. We did. I’ve done here what I believe to be the right thing, and that is to allow the House to work its will,” he told reporters Saturday. “And as I’ve said, you do the right thing and you let the chips fall where they may, and I’ll continue to do that.”
Johnson is facing backlash from hard-right members of his party after he joined Democrats on Saturday to pass a critical foreign aid package that included $60.8 billion of aid to Ukraine. Republican Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Thomas Massie of Kentucky have signed onto the motion to vacate, which Greene authored but has not yet brought to the floor as a privileged resolution.
If the motion is brought to the floor, the three Republican votes supporting it could be enough for passage if they are joined by all Democrats in the chamber. But some House Democrats have signaled that they plan to vote to save Johnson.
Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., a moderate who serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, on Sunday blasted Greene’s effort to oust Johnson when asked about her criticism of the foreign aid package.
“What Marjorie Taylor Greene and what Thomas Massie and what Paul Gosar are trying to accomplish by removing the speaker of the house in this very moment after October 7 would only embolden China, it would only embolden Russia, [and] it would only embolden Iran,” Moskowitz said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a progressive who serves a member of the House Armed Services Committee, on Sunday said he would protect Johnson’s job if members of his far-right flank go through with their threat to oust him.
“I’m a progressive Democrat and I think you would have a few progressive Democrats doing that. And I disagree with Speaker Johnson on many issues and I’ve been very critical of him, but he did the right thing here,” Khanna said in an interview on ABC News’ “This Week,” referring to Johnson bringing the foreign aid package to the floor. “And he deserves to keep his job till the end of this term.”
The shift from Democrats is noteworthy given their lockstep support of the motion to vacate that led to the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy last October, which ultimately resulted in Johnson getting the gavel. Members made efforts to remove speakers in previous congressional terms, but no motion ever reached the floor for a vote.
Julie Tsirkin, Rebecca Kaplan and Kyle Stewart contributed.
