Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) appears to already have plans to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) if he passes a deal that provides funding to Ukraine.
“I would introduce the motion to vacate myself,” Greene reportedly said on Wednesday to Axios reporter Andrew Solender.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tells me “I would introduce the motion to vacate myself” if Speaker Johnson passes funding to Ukraine.
— Andrew Solender (@AndrewSolender) January 17, 2024
Johnson met with President Joe Biden and other congressional leaders on Wednesday to try and overcome a monthslong standstill over border security and funding military assistance to Ukraine and Israel. The speaker dismissed any chance for a comprehensive immigration bill ahead of the meeting, stating that that type of legislation would require time and the “catastrophe” at the border “has to be addressed” now.
Despite resistance from Johnson and several House conservatives, Senate Republican leaders are hoping to vote on legislation that pairs Ukraine and Israel funding with a border security plan. Leading GOP lawmakers in the Senate have argued this could be the party’s best chance to extract serious border concessions from Democrats.
“If we had a 100% Republican government — president, House, Senate — we probably would not be able to get a single Democratic vote to pass what Senator Lankford and the administration are trying to get together on,” McConnell told reporters on Wednesday before heading to the meeting with Biden. “So this is a unique opportunity to accomplish something in divided government that wouldn’t be there under unified government.”
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Hard-line conservatives such as Greene have argued that they should refuse to fund the government until the crisis at the border is addressed. The House and Senate agreed to a bipartisan, two-part continuing resolution for $1.66 trillion in spending over the weekend to avoid a government shutdown looming on Friday.
“If Republicans had a spine, and if our conference stuck together, we have all the power that we need to solve the border crisis right now. I completely disagree with [Speaker] Mike Johnson that we aren’t going to be able to do it. I think if we just refused to fund anything, and we stood our ground, that we would come out winning that,” Greene told the Washington Examiner‘s Washington Secrets on Monday.