WASHINGTON — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday filed a motion to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson from his leadership position over his decision to work with Democrats to pass a $1.2 trillion spending bill to fund government operations through September.
“I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the House in chaos, but this is basically a warning,” Greene, R-Ga., told reporters after filing the motion to vacate on Friday. “It’s time for us to go through the process, take our time and find a new speaker of the House that will stand with Republicans and our Republican majority instead of standing with the Democrats.”
She declined to share a timeline for a possible vote on the motion, saying only that “the clock has started. It’s time for our conference to choose a new speaker.”
The motion comes on the same day the House voted 286-134 in favor of passing the bipartisan spending bill with support from Johnson, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. On Friday, 185 Democrats joined 101 Republicans to pass the bill. In opposition were 112 Republicans and 22 Democrats.
Greene said the vote count proved that Johnson is “already in the arms of Democrats.”
“This bill was basically a dream and a wish list for Democrats and for the White House,” she said. “It was completely led by Chuck Schumer. Not our Republican speaker of the House, not our conference, and we weren’t even allowed to put amendments to the floor to have a chance to make changes to the bill.”
Johnson became House speaker in October following the ouster of then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. The California Republican had been challenged by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., after he worked with Democrats to pass an earlier funding bill.
Republicans, who have a narrow majority in the House, subsequently struggled for weeks to fill his role. Johnson was the fourth Republican to aim for the speakership.
Greene acknowledged Friday that the path to removing Johnson and settling on a new speaker would not be easy.
“It was hard to go the last time but look at where we are now,” she said, again pointing to the funding bill. She added, “This bill was passed without a majority of Republicans. This is a Democrat budget, and it was passed by Mike Johnson.”
It was not immediately clear whether Greene had the votes to oust Johnson. She said Friday that she had the support of several other Republicans but added that they would likely remain silent on the issue.
Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told CNN he was “really disappointed” with Johnson after the vote, adding that he has “real questions about the direction we are going.”
He and other GOP lawmakers declined to say whether they would support Greene’s motion.
Johnson did not immediately comment.
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