Greene Files Motion to Vacate Speaker’s Chair
WASHINGTON — For the second time in five months, a member of the Republican Conference in the House has filed a motion to vacate the chair of the party’s speaker.
But this time, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., says the motion is intended merely as a warning to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
“I respect our conference. I paid all my dues to my conference. I am a member in good standing and I do not wish to inflict pain on my conference and to throw the House in[to] chaos,” Greene said on the steps of the Capitol Friday morning.
Greene filed her motion minutes after the House on Friday passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund the government through September and avert a partial shutdown a minute after midnight.
The vote was 286-134, but it infuriated members of the House GOP’s hardline conservative wing.
Addressing a crush of reporters on the Capitol steps, Greene called the speaker’s compromise with House Democrats over the spending measure an act of “betrayal.”
“This is our chance to secure the border, and he didn’t do it. And now this funding bill passed without the majority of the majority,” she said.
The votes sent the spending package over to the Senate, which began to debate the legislation Friday afternoon.
A vote on the package is expected in the Senate later tonight, and if, as expected, it passes, it will be sent to President Joe Biden’s desk before midnight.
Meanwhile Greene insists that it’s time for the House Republicans to begin a deliberate search for a new speaker.
One “that will stand with Republicans and our Republican majority instead of standing with the Democrats,” she said.
Because Greene has made her motion privileged, it can’t be considered until after the congressional Easter recess, which began as soon as the chamber wrapped up business Friday and will continue through April 9.
Raj Shah, a spokesman for Johnson, responded to word of Greene’s motion by saying Johnson “always listens to the concerns of members.”
“He will continue to push conservative legislation that secures our border, strengthens our national defense and demonstrates how we’ll grow our majority,” Shah said.
Johnson himself dismissively waved off reporters’ questions when he was asked to respond.
But Greene’s move appears to have sharply divided members of the Republican Conference, several of whom tried to dissuade her from making the motion.
Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., one of its more moderate members, called the motion by Greene an “idiotic stunt.”
Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., a member of the House Freedom Caucus, the group of dissidents that ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last year, said in a video posted to the X social media network that he considers Greene his friend.
“She’s still my friend. But she just made a big mistake,” he said.. “To think that one of our Republican colleagues would call for his ouster right now — it’s really, it’s abhorrent to me and I oppose it.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, Rep, Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y., who was recently elected to succeed disgraced former Rep. George Santos, was among the Democrats who said he would stand by Johnson.
“It’s absurd he’s getting kicked for doing the right thing, keeping the government open,” he told CNN.
“It has two-thirds support of the Congress, and the idea that he would be kicked out by these jokers is absurd,” Suozzi added.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and @DanMcCue
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