House Votes to Kill Greene’s Bid to Oust Speaker

WASHINGTON — In a bipartisan show of force, the House on Wednesday evening overwhelmingly voted to save Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from a coup attempted by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.

The stunning turn of events occurred just minutes after Greene followed through on weeks of threats and formally called for a vote to oust Johnson, pressing ahead with an effort she knew was all but certain to fail.

Since the maverick Republican filed her motion to vacate the chair late last month, both Democrats and moderate Republicans had gone on record as opposing the plan, saying any serious consideration of her motion would plunge the House into chaos.

On Wednesday, as she rose in the House chamber to trigger consideration of her motion, several members who were in attendance in the chamber booed, and a number of Republicans actually walked over to Johnson and shook his hand in a sign of support.

Greene, however, was undeterred, outlining her litany of complaints against Johnson in a speech that lasted more than 10 minutes.

In essence, Greene claimed Johnson has betrayed his conservative principles and reneged on promises laid out in a letter to the Republican conference last October that spelled out the kind of speaker he would be.

Most irksome of all, she said, was that Johnson has repeatedly worked with Democrats to advance legislation and spending bills.

On top of that, Greene assailed Johnson for failing to protect disgraced Rep. George Santos, who was removed from the House last December by a 311-114 vote of his colleagues.

By allowing “multiple votes” on Santos’s fate, she said, Johnson failed to protect the Republican majority in the House.

The seat was won in a special election this past winter, by Democrat Tom Suozzi, who held the seat until an ill-advised run for New York governor opened the door to Santos’s ascent.

Greene also accused Johnson, an avowed Christian conservative, of fully supporting the funding of abortion rights, “the trans agenda,” the climate agenda, foreign wars and [President Joe] Biden’s border crisis, “rather than ensuring liberty, opportunity and security for all Americans.

“Mike Johnson worked with Chuck Schumer rather than the conference and gave Joe Biden and the Democrats everything they wanted no different from how a speaker Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., would have done,” Greene said.

“Speaker Johnson fully funded Special Counsel Jack Smith’s witch hunt [against former President Donald Trump], and 91 indictments against [him], our Republican presidential nominee, House Republicans could have used our power of the purse to stop this, but speaker Johnson didn’t even let us try,” Greene said.

“Actions are the only thing that matter and words are meaningless without following through on them,” Greene said. “Our elected Republican speaker Mike Johnson has aided and abetted the Democrats and the Biden administration in destroying our country.”

Greene declared her motion privileged, forcing House Republican leaders to take up the measure within two legislative days.

Instead, the chamber voted 359-43-7 on a motion to table Greene’s motion to vacate, preventing the removal resolution from hitting the floor for a vote.

Afterwards, Johnson said he appreciated the show of confidence from his colleagues in the House, and their pulling together “to defeat this misguided vote.”

“As I’ve said from the beginning and I’ve made clear here every day, I intend to do my job,” Johnson told reporters in the Capitol. “I intend to do what I believe to be the right thing, which is what I was elected to do, and I’ll let the chips fall where they may. In my view, that is leadership.”

“Hopefully,” he continued, “this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress.”

Later, Jeffries said the decision to stop Greene’s effort was “rooted in our commitment to solve problems for everyday Americans in a bipartisan manner.”

“We will continue to govern in a reasonable, responsible and results-oriented fashion, and put people over politics all day and every day,” he said.

Greene did have some supporters, however, even after the dust settled.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., one of the few in the GOP conference who stood firmly behind Greene’s effort to oust the speaker from the beginning, said after the vote on the X social media platform, “It’s a new paradigm in Congress. Nancy Pelosi, and most Republicans voted to keep Uniparty speaker Mike Johnson,” he said.

Massie was among 11 Republicans who voted against tabling the motion to vacate.

In addition to himself and Greene, the other Representatives casting no votes were Andy Biggs of Arizona, Eric Burlison of Missouri, Elijah Crane of Arizona, Warren Davidson of Ohio, Paul Gosar of Arizona, Alexander Mooney of West Virginia, Barry Moore of Alabama, Chip Roy of Texas and Victoria Spartz of Indiana.

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