Liam Conner
washington – Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene appeared to backtrack on her threat to imminently trigger a vote to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson as leader of the House after lengthy meetings with him this week.
“Right now the ball is in Mike Johnson’s court,” Greene said Tuesday. She added that the deadline for fulfilling her promise to force a vote “is up to Mike Johnson and cannot be extended.”
She said Johnson was not given a “specific timeline, but it is very short.”
Greene met Monday and Tuesday with Johnson as the Georgia Republican weighed the exact moment to force a vote to remove him from leadership. Greene said last Wednesday that she would start the clock on a vote to unseat Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, this week after maintaining the threat since March.
Kent Nishimura/Getty Images
But she emerged from the meetings to offer few details about her plans to force a vote, signaling that tensions may be easing — at least until he makes another misstep in the eyes of the far right.
Greene demanded that Johnson promise no more aid to Ukraine, no bill be brought to the floor unless a majority of Republicans support it, withdraw funding for Justice Department investigations into former President Donald Trump and automatic spending cuts if the 12 appropriations bills were not approved individually.
“I have high expectations and they need to be fully met,” Greene said in an interview with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon on his “War Room” podcast ahead of Tuesday’s meeting. “There is no middle ground, there is no compromise.”
Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, said Tuesday that the initial conversation was “productive” and “not a negotiation.” He also described the second meeting as “productive” and said he was “optimistic” about finding a resolution on the suggestions. They no longer had meetings scheduled, he said.
“I take ideas from Marjorie and Thomas and everyone else equally and we evaluate them based on their own value, and where we can make improvements and changes and everything else, we do. That’s what it is. There’s nothing more than this happening,” he said on Tuesday morning.
Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, attended both meetings. He and Republican Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona are the only two Republicans who have publicly supported Greene’s effort at this time.
Johnson has repeatedly noted that he leads a split majority with a one-vote margin. Special elections in May and June to fill seats from Republicans who have retired in recent months will help provide more protection to the Republican majority.
If Greene eventually triggers a vote, Johnson is expected to survive the attempt to remove him from the gavel thanks to Democratic support this puts him in a stronger position despite the Republican Party’s narrow margin of control. Democrats said they would thwart the effort to remove him after he challenged conservative members of his party to support more aid to Ukraine.
Democrats’ offer to help a Republican leader maintain his power demonstrates the extent to which conservatives’ reluctance to compromise has pushed the House toward this unique moment. But Democrats say the move is more about defeating the far right than saving Johnson.
“Our view would traditionally be, ‘Let the other side sort out its own mess,'” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a New York Democrat, said recently. counted “60 minutes.” “But when this confusion begins to affect the ability to do work on behalf of the American people, then the responsibility at that time may be to make it clear that we will not allow extremists to throw Congress and the country into chaos.”
Johnson said Tuesday he hopes to remain in power next year.
“I intend to lead this conference in the future,” he said at his weekly press conference. “I hope to do that in the future. I’m happy to have President Trump’s support.”
Nikole Killion and Jaala Brown contributed reporting.
