Greene Wavers as Speaker Balks at Negotiating for Job

WASHINGTON — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., appears to be backing off her threat to “absolutely” force a vote on her motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, telling reporters Tuesday that she’s willing to give House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., more time to demonstrate he’s committed to advancing conservative priorities in the chamber.

Greene’s wobble came after three hours of meetings with Johnson over the past two days, and just hours after he flatly told reporters at a morning news conference that his conversations with the maverick member were “not a negotiation.”

Though Greene declined to entirely back off her motion to vacate the seat, she took some mustard off the ball by telling reporters the future is effectively “up to Mike Johnson.”

Neither Greene nor Johnson has revealed what they’ve discussed in recent days, but ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, the Georgia representative had said she had a list of demands she planned to present to the speaker.

These reportedly included:

• Defunding special counsels, including Jack Smith, the special counsel currently pursuing the classified documents case against former President Donald Trump. 
• Reviving the so-called Hastert rule, under which the speaker would only bring bills to the floor that a majority of Republican members supported. 
• Imposing a 1% spending cut across the board if Congress fails to complete the appropriations process by the traditional end of the fiscal year.
• That the speaker not allow for the consideration of any further aid for Ukraine.

Asked about the first demand during Tuesday’s press briefing, Johnson said there had long been discussions “amongst House Republicans in particular … about the abuses of special counsels.”

He went on to explain that while Congress has both oversight responsibility over the executive branch and the power of the purse under the Constitution, statutes passed during the Clinton administration placed special counsels “outside the regular appropriations process.”

“So there’s been discussion this week, as there has been for a long, long time, about what is the most effective way for Congress to take the reins of that and ensure that the special counsels are not abusing the law themselves,” Johnson said.

Seeking to further disabuse anyone’s notion that Greene was forcing his hand on the issue, Johnson repeated that “discussions this week are nothing new.”

“We’re looking intently at it because I think the problem has reached a crescendo,” he said.

As for the talks with Greene, which also included Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., Johnson described the first two hours, which took place on Monday, as “good” and “productive.”

“It’s not a negotiation,” he said. “This is how I’ve operated as speaker since I committed to doing it.”

Noting that he just passed his six-month anniversary as speaker, Johnson said, “Everybody knows I have lengthy, detailed discussions on a daily basis with members across the Congress.

“It takes a lot of time … which is why I don’t get enough sleep these days,” he joked as a smile spread across his face.

“But seriously, this is what one is required to do when you have the smallest majority in history; you have to literally get everyone to work together when you can only lose one vote on a party preference or priority. And it takes a lot of time to build consensus,” he said.

“So what I do every day, almost on an hourly basis, is I hear suggestions and ideas and thoughts from members. My door has been open from day one, and I reminded the conference of that at our weekly meeting this morning,” Johnson said.

“Everybody has the same opportunity to share their ideas, as Marojorie and Thomas did yesterday,” the speaker continued. “What we’re trying to do, and what my job is, is to work everyday to improve processes and procedures … to make sure that we can build the right consensus and get everybody together.

“It takes an inordinate amount of time and a lot of patience to do that, but I’m committed to it,” he said.

As for anything Greene and Massie may have suggested, Johnson said their ideas would be assessed “on their own value” just like any other suggestion he’s received.

“And where we can make changes and improvements, we’ll do that,” he said.

Asked if he expects to be speaker next year, Johnson offered a somewhat cagey, “I intend to lead this conference in the future.

“The most important thing that we have to do right now is govern the country well,” he said. “We have to show the American people what we have and what we will be doing. After that our number one job responsibility is to keep and grow the house majority in November.

“That’s my singular focus,” Johnson said. “We have plans for the next Congress, and we’ve been outlining a lot of it right now. It’s all hands on deck, all hands on the wheel and steering, steering the ship of state.”

Johnson said he was also glad to have the support of former President Donald Trump, who, coincidentally called Greene over the weekend, allegedly to convince her to give up her quest to oust the speaker.

Greene declined to discuss the nature of her recent conversations with Trump.

As for Johnson, he declared the mission of the House GOP is to “save the country” and forget the intraparty nit-picking.

“In my view, if we don’t grow the House majority, and don’t retake the Senate and the White House, then I think we’re all facing very serious threats to the future of our country,” he said.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue