Greene blasts critics of motion to oust Speaker Johnson
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Thursday hit back at the critics of her effort to oust Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), arguing the forecasted “scary bad things” did not happen after the vote.
“All the scary bad things they all told you would happen if I called the motion to vacate didn’t happen,” Greene wrote Thursday on the social platform X.
“They said ‘Democrats would take control of the House and Jeffries would become Speaker because Republicans only have the majority with one seat,'” she wrote. “Didn’t happen. Instead, Democrats voted to save Johnson because they knew it was impossible to take control of the House and they want to keep Johnson because he’s given them everything they want.”
The House on Wednesday voted to block an attempt led by Greene to boot Johnson from the Speakership. The final vote was 359-43-7, with 196 Republicans and 163 Democrats choosing to save Johnson.
There was little doubt on the result. Democrats had indicated they would provide the votes to help Johnson last week.
Republicans were broadly against Greene’s motion, arguing it was a doomed and unnecessary distraction that put the spotlight on internal squabbles instead of problems they want to emphasize with the Biden administration ahead of the fall elections.
Greene fired back at critics who argued the lower chamber should be focused on policy-based issues, writing, “Doing things for the American people and focusing on serious issues didn’t happen because the Uniparty reared it’s ugly head and voted to protect their Uniparty leader and to keep the status quo which has done nothing to for the American people or solved problems on serious issues.”
The “Uniparty” is Greene’s insult of Democrats and Republicans who vote together on certain issues.
Johnson’s decision to bring various bills to the floor that ended up passing with Democratic support, such as measures to prevent a government shutdown and provide aid to Ukraine, spurred her decision on the motion to vacate.
At the end of her lengthy X post, Greene ripped Congress for what she argued was a lack of border security measures and the continued funding for global conflicts.
“Congress, which is paid by the American people and sent to represent them, didn’t stop the border crisis, didn’t stop funding foreign wars, didn’t protect America’s energy industry, didn’t cut spending to reduce inflation, didn’t defund the weaponized government, instead Congress protected itself and kept the Uniparty control over the People’s House,” she said.
Greene and Johnson met for hours earlier this week, during which she listed a series of demands for the Speaker. Among these included only bringing bills to the floor that have the support from a majority of the GOP conference, vowing against additional aid for Ukraine, establishing a 1 percent spending cut across the board, and defunding special counsels, including Jack Smith, who is probing former President Trump.
Johnson told reporters on Tuesday he was “working through a lot of ideas and suggestions,” but he shied away from publicly committing to the requests.
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