ATLANTA — Former President Donald Trump is calling on fellow Republicans to come together if they want to win in the 2024 election and praised Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene following her failed bid to remove U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“I absolutely love Marjorie Taylor Greene. She’s got spirit, she’s got fight, and I believe she’ll be around, and on our side, for a long time to come,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Greene stood on the House floor late Wednesday and read a long list of “transgressions” she said Johnson had committed as speaker, from his passage of a $95 billion national security package with aid for Ukraine to his reliance on Democrats to wield power.
Colleagues booed in protest. But Greene soldiered on, criticizing Johnson’s leadership as “pathetic, weak and unacceptable.”
After Greene triggered the vote on her motion to vacate the Republican speaker from his office, Republican Majority Leader Steve Scalise quickly countered by calling first for a vote to table it.
An overwhelming majority, 359-43, kept Johnson in his job, for now.
Following the vote, Trump said now is the time to show unity if Republicans want to win in the fall.
“If we show DISUNITY, which will be portrayed as CHAOS, it will negatively affect everything! Mike Johnson is a good man who is trying very hard. I also wish certain things were done over the last period of two months, but we will get them done, together,” Trump wrote.
It’s the second time in a matter of months that Republicans have worked to oust their own speaker, an unheard-of level of party upheaval with a move rarely seen in U.S. history.
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While the outcome temporarily calms the latest source of House disruption, the vote tally shows the strengths but also the stark limits of Johnson’s hold on the gavel, and the risks ahead for any Republican trying to lead the GOP.
Without Democratic help, Johnson would have certainly faced a more dismal outcome. All told, 11 Republicans voted to proceed with Greene’s effort, more than it took to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy last fall, a first in U.S. history.
But by relying on Democratic backing, Johnson risks inciting more criticism that he is insufficiently loyal to the party.
“I’m proud of what I did today,” Greene said afterward on the Capitol steps.
The move now poses its own political risks for Greene, a high-profile provocateur who has moved to the forefront of the party with her own massive following and proximity to Trump.
Even though Trump provided a needed nod of support for Johnson at crucial moments, it’s not bankable going forward.
The threat still lingers — any single lawmaker can call up the motion to vacate the speaker.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
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