Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Sunday said her motion to vacate the Speakership is “coming” no matter what House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) decides to do, while also dodging questions about an alternative plan if he is booted.
“Mike Johnson’s Speakership is over. He needs to do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process, and if he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated,” she said Sunday on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo then asked if Greene plans to move forward with her motion to vacate, which she introduced last month. She has not yet brought the vote to the House floor or indicated what might prompt her to do so.
“It’s coming regardless of what Mike Johnson decides to do. And we have three more Republicans joining us for a special election coming up very soon. So, people need to know this can happen,” Greene responded.
Greene took the first step toward ousting Johnson after the House passed a spending package to avert a partial government shutdown just hours before the deadline. The package had votes from both sides of the aisle but came under scrutiny by House conservatives.
At the time, Greene called the motion “basically a warning,” but tensions were further inflamed in recent weeks after Johnson supported stand-alone aid to Ukraine, despite previously insisting aid for Kyiv needs to be linked with security measures for the U.S. southern border.
“[Johnson] has completely betrayed Republican voters all over the country, and he is absolutely working for the Democrats, pipe-passing, the Biden administration’s agenda,” Greene said Sunday. “So, this is a Speakership that is completely overwhelmed. It’s only Mike Johnson, is the one that tried to hang on to it and is in complete denial.”
Last week, Johnson called the ouster threat “absurd” and maintained that he would not resign. His remarks came shortly after Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) emerged as the first Republican to publicly back Greene’s motion. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) publicly backed the motion last week.
Bartiromo asked Greene for her response to the critics who claim she is “creating chaos” for the GOP conference, to which she said, “Those that are calling this ‘drama’ are the very people that are responsible for the drama that the American people are having to live through every single day.”
“Those on the left, those on the right, the ‘uni’ party that’s in control of our government are the ones that have inflicted the American people with nearly $35 trillion in debt, ripped our border wide open,” she said.
Bartiromo followed this up by asking Greene for her alternative plan should Johnson be booted.
“Our plan is this: We have to give the American people a reason to trust us and fight for us. The American people are supporting President Trump to be the next president of the United States because they’ve seen him in action. He fought against the Democrat agenda. He put America first. They desperately want him to lead this country again because they trust him, and they know he will do that,” Greene responded.
Bartiromo then told Greene she did “not give a plan for the Speaker’s role,” before asking her about the timing for the motion.