- Johnson said MTG’s attempt to oust him is a “distraction” to maintaining Republican majority
- Rep. MTG filed a motion to impeach Johnson after he reached a bipartisan spending deal with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown last month.
- It comes five months after former President Kevin McCarthy vacated his seat.
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Mike Johnson says spending the months leading up to the November election fighting, once again, for a new House speaker is a “distraction” as the party faces one of the narrowest majorities in history modern… and increasingly smaller.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed a motion March 22 to remove President Johnson (R-La.) from office after he reached a bipartisan spending deal that she said failed to do the enough to secure the southern border. .
Johnson told Fox News host and former Republican Rep. Trey Gowdy on Sunday that he plans to speak with Rep. Greene this week about the matter and that they are exchanging text messages regularly.
Speaker Mike Johnson said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s attempt to unseat him is a “distraction” from the goal of maintaining his Republican majority in the House.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a motion to remove Johnson as president after he introduced bipartisan spending legislation to prevent a government shutdown last month.
“I think all of my Republican colleagues recognize that this is a distraction from our mission,” the House’s top Republican said. ‘Once again, the mission is to save the Republic. And the only way we can do that is if we increase the majority in the House, we win the Senate and we win the White House.”
He added: “Therefore, we do not need any dissent at this time.”
On October 3, 2023, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) was successful in his efforts to unseat now-former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who left Congress shortly after losing his leadership position. The impeachment led to a weeks-long effort with several failures to elect a new president.
Johnson was finally chosen to replace McCarthy on October 25. He was seen as someone who could toe the line between establishment Republicans, conservative members of the House Freedom Caucus and the more far-right factions of the party.
However, it now appears that any Republican president who works with Democrats to pass bipartisan legislation will face the wrath of staunchly pro-MAGA lawmakers.
President Johnson dubbed MTG and some of his peers seeking to be kingmakers in the House the ‘Chaos Caucus.’
MTG’s resolution comes just five months after Republicans finally agreed on Johnson as their next president following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy.
Johnson (R) told Fox News that he and MTG (L) are in text communication and plan to speak in person this week about their resolution to vacate.
Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) announced in March that he will not serve out the remainder of his term and will leave Congress this month. Gallagher is chairman of the House Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.
His early departure comes after Republican Rep. Ken Buck (Colorado) also ended his House term early when he vacated his seat last month.
President Johnson now faces an even narrower Republican majority as he faces an attempt to overthrow him by the MTG.
Fox host Trey Gowdy asked Johnson why MTG isn’t more focused on working with his fellow Georgia Republicans to win back both Senate seats in the purple state after both lost to Democrats in 2020.
“How does talking about a repeal motion, instead of talking about the border or inflation or other issues that are better for the Republican Party, help the Republican Party grow its majority?” Gowdy asked Sunday. “How does this override motion help regain the majority or get a larger majority?”
“I don’t think so,” Johnson responded.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (left) introduced a motion to impeach former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (right) and was successful on October 3, 2023, but it took a few weeks and several failed attempts to finally vote for him. replacement in Johnson.
MTG washed its hands of any potential blame should its attempt to unseat Johnson end up handing power to Democrats and their House leader, Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
Instead, Rep. Greene blamed Republicans who left Congress before the end of her term, mentioning Reps. Buck and Gallagher.
“It’s just simple math,” he insisted in an interview Tuesday with Real America’s Voice. “The more Republicans, like Mike Gallagher, resign and leave early, guess what, that means we have fewer Republicans in the House.”
“So every time a Mike Gallagher or a Ken Buck leaves early, our numbers go down and we get dangerously close to being a minority.”
Once Gallagher leaves his seat on April 19, Republicans will only be able to lose one vote to pass partisan legislation.
After a special election in California in May for McCarthy’s seat, that number will rise again to two.