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Shortly before the House began a two-week Easter/Passover break, members approved a package of spending bills that prevented a government shutdown. That news was quickly overshadowed, however, by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s latest provocative move.
The Georgia Republican filed a motion to vacate on Friday, hoping to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, despite having denounced such an approach two months earlier. “It’s time for our conference to choose a new speaker,” the right-wing congresswoman told reporters.
When Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida took a similar step to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy last fall, a floor vote soon followed. This time, as a procedural matter, is different. As a Politico report summarized, “What Greene did not do was trigger action on the motion, or start any kind of clock for the House to consider her proposal to boot Johnson from the speakership.”
As for a possible timeline, the report added:
Greene could have called up her resolution on the House floor Friday and forced a decision sooner. Instead, she is sitting on what amounts to a threat against Johnson’s leadership. “I’m not saying that it won’t happen in two weeks, or it won’t happen in a month, or who knows when,” Greene said Friday.
In the meantime, the Georgian will likely look for allies, and to date, literally zero House Republicans have endorsed her effort to bring down Johnson, though some have left the door open.
The equally significant question is what Democrats intend to do. They might be in the minority, but given the divided chamber, if even a small handful of Republicans voted to strip the House speaker of his gavel, and they were joined by members of the Democratic minority, Johnson would lose his leadership post.
With this in mind, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told CNN that members of her conference could rescue the Louisiana Republican from his own party’s offensive, but the New York Democrat added, “I don’t think we do that for free.”
The plan, at least for now, seems relatively straightforward: A variety of Democratic lawmakers have said they’re prepared to lend Johnson a hand if the House speaker allows members to approve a Ukraine aid bill.
For his part, Johnson has already expressed interest in allowing some kind of House action on the issue, though his plan can charitably be described as murky, and the GOP leader realizes that much of his far-right flank will be even more eager to oust him if such a floor vote happens.
All the while, Johnson also realizes that he’ll be further weakened within his own conference if he not only relies on Democrats to govern, but also relies on Democrats to keep his job.
At this point, some readers are probably asking, “But what about the discharge petition?” There’s been no progress on that front, though it’s worth noting for context that Republican Ken Buck, shortly before his resignation date, snubbed his party’s leadership one final time by signing onto the Democratic effort.
The practical implications are limited, but the move was emblematic of the increasingly shambolic nature of GOP politics on Capitol Hill right now.