WASHINGTON – House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is expected to survive a challenge from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and other far-right Republicans next week, but the goal isn’t to elect a new speaker. At least not this time around.
The goal is to move today’s GOP even further to the right, they indicate, and Johnson’s the perfect prop for this latest political ploy.
While most Republicans oppose Greene’s plan to formally call for a vote on her motion to vacate Johnson’s – the same tool used last autumn to oust Speaker Kevin McCarthy – she doesn’t care what her fellow Republicans are saying.
“They didn’t vote for me,” Greene told Raw Story on the Capitol steps Wednesday.
“But who is your base?” Raw Story asked. “Is your base Steve Bannon’s War Room? Or is it Georgia folks?”
“My district is great,” Greene said. “I think you should talk to my comms director right here, and he’ll tell you about all the support I have.”
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Greene then went in to vote on the House floor, as her communications team sent Raw Story the last three Economist / YouGov polls showing Johnson’s favorability rating going from “50% then down to 47% and then plummets to 41% with [Donald] Trump voters.”
Only 22% of respondents to those Economist / YouGov polls have a favorable view of Greene, but 47% of Trump supporters view her favorably.
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While Johnson has been losing support from Trump’s base since ushering a foreign aid package — heavy on Ukraine spending — through the House, Greene hasn’t seen her numbers budge.
“MTG stays steady,” Greene’s communications team noted to Raw Story.
Greene may be lonely in her effort to challenge Johnson, but she’s not completely alone.
Reps. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) and Thomas Massie (R-KY) are the two other Republicans to publicly endorse the motion to vacate.
“It's our cause,” Massie told Raw Story from the U.S. Capitol. “I couldn't think of a better person to work with on something of this magnitude than Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
The Greene-Massie-Gosar axis expects more restive Republicans to join them next week, especially after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) and other Democratic leaders announced their plan to come up with the votes to table Greene’s motion to vacate, thereby freezing the motion and saving Johnson’s speakership.
U.S. Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) speaks at a news conference at the Capitol Building on December 07, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“He has passed everything the Democrats’ wish list, and now has the endorsement of Hakeem Jeffries,” Greene tweeted on X. “I will be calling for a vote to vacate the chair next week, so the American people can see who stands with the Uniparty and who stands with the people.”
The threat is barely veiled from Greene, who with Gosar and Massie feel betrayed by Johnson, beholden to Trump’s base and empowered by House rules that allow any one member to challenge the speaker.
“It's basically ‘Lord of the Flies’,” said Massie, referring to the classic book where a group of stranded children attempt to govern themselves on an adult-free island. “Where McCarthy had some ability to say, ‘Hey, don't do that,’ Johnson does not. He's like the substitute teacher that nobody takes seriously.”
The Ukraine aid package — which Greene summed up to reporters as, “Make Ukraine Great Again” — revealed the fault lines dividing GOP hawks from the party’s MAGA/isolationist wing.
“There is a big realignment right now. I call it a cold civil war in the party, and it's gone hot and Johnson's picked a side of the appropriators and the ‘Uniparty’ and the military industrial complex, which isn't what he led on to be when he got elected speaker,” Massie said. “But he's picked a side in this.”
Greene, Gosar and Massie know their motion to vacate is likely to fail, but they’re betting it will empower them by weakening Johnson.
“I think there'll be enough votes to show that Mike Johnson is a lame duck,” Massie said. “He doesn't know that, and so next week, I think, he's gonna have to come to terms with, ‘Well, when I come back next Congress I'm not going to be the speaker. Should I stay in this spot now that the world knows it? Am I depriving our party of a general who can go out there and lead the majority?’”
U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) speaks with members of the media at the U.S. Capitol on April 20, 2024 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images)
And they’re fine if Johnson’s publicly humiliated in the process.
“One of the goals is to show that he is not viable next Congress, because he would be terrible. He would be worse than Paul Ryan,” Massie said, referring to the House speaker who stepped down in early 2019 after deciding not to seek reelection.
While Johnson’s expected to keep his gavel next week, Greene and others on the far-right are hoping the vote will expand their ranks of rabble-rousing Republicans set on upending Washington and the GOP of yesterday.
“It's gonna be a list of people that are the problem and people who aren't,” Massie told Raw Story. “Or, who are trying not to be the problem.”
