House

Greene says she won’t take blame if Jeffries becomes Speaker

by Lauren Sforza - 03/27/24 10:22 AM ET

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Tuesday that it is not her fault if House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) is promoted to the House’s top role after she filed a motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from the position last week.

Greene pushed back on criticism that her motion against Johnson could result in Jeffries being elected Speaker due to the dwindling GOP majority in the lower chamber. She argued that Republican lawmakers who have cut their terms short and left office are the true ones to blame, not her.

“It’s just a simple math. The more Republicans, like Mike Gallagher, that resign and leave early — guess what, that means we have less Republicans in the House,” Greene said Tuesday on Real America’s Voice, a conservative cable channel. “So, every time a Mike Gallagher or a Ken Buck leaves early, that brings our numbers down and brings us dangerously closer to being in the minority.”

“It’s not Marjorie Taylor Greene that is saying the inconvenient truth and forcing everyone to wake up and realize Republican voters are done with us doing this kind of crap that we did last week,” she added.

Former Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) served his final day in Congress last week, and Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) announced he would be leaving the lower chamber next month. Earlier this week, Greene also called on Johnson to push for Gallagher’s expulsion from the House to give his district time to elect a new representative.

After Gallagher leaves, House Republicans will have 217 members, while House Democrats will have 213, meaning the GOP can only afford to lose one vote on any bill that doesn’t have Democratic support.

“I am not going to be responsible for Hakeem Jeffries being Speaker of the House,” Greene said.

“I am not going to be responsible for a Democratic majority taking over our Republican majority that lies squarely rarely on the shoulders of these Republicans that are leaving early because they don’t have the intestinal fortitude to handle the real fight and the responsibility that comes with leadership and the end of our republic when our country is nearly destroyed,” she added.

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The Georgia Republican reiterated that the motion she brought against Johnson is merely a warning, or a “pink slip,” to put him on notice and demand that the Republicans elect a new leader.

Greene filed the motion to vacate last week as the House approved a $1.2 trillion spending package to keep the government open. She has defended her move but has not laid out a timeline for when she may try to force a vote on the motion to the floor for a vote.

Tags Hakeem Jeffries Ken Buck Marjorie Taylor Greene Mike Gallagher Mike Johnson motion to vacate Speaker of the House