WASHINGTON – After passing aid to Ukraine, Mike Johnson’s speakership is safe.
For now.
House lawmakers left Washington for a one-week recess on Saturday after passing a foreign aid package on a bipartisan basis. That package has put Johnson, R-La., under heavy fire from conservatives for passing the aid with the help of Democrats.
A few of those conservatives, led by firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., are pushing to remove Johnson from the speakership. Greene has filed a procedural tool known as a motion to vacate to oust Johnson, but the Georgia Republican declined to call up a vote before lawmakers left town, giving the speaker and his allies a short reprieve.
“I do not support Mike Johnson,” Greene told reporters on the Capitol steps on Saturday, saying she will wait on ousting Johnson until she speaks to her constituents in Georgia. “He can’t be speaker.”
Greene though, who at a moment’s notice can force the House to vote on Johnson’s fate, declined to offer a clear timeline for when she would try to supplant the speaker, telling reporters she “didn’t come here to Congress to actually hurt our institution, hurt our majority.”
Greene is joined by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Paul Gosar, Ariz., who already amount to enough GOP votes to remove Johnson. Democrats, though, have suggested they would come to Johnson’s rescue and join Republicans to kill any effort to oust Johnson.
Some Republicans though have doubts to the sustainability of Democrats saving Johnson’s speakership. Massie has predicted Johnson would only lose more GOP support if Democrats come to the speaker’s aid.
Johnson has expressed little concern about the prospects of losing his job, stressing the importance of aid to Ukraine and other U.S. allies over his own personal prospects.
“I don’t walk around this building being worried about a motion to vacate. I have to do my job. We did. I’ve done here what I believe to be the right thing,” Johnson told reporters after the House passed the foreign aid package. “If you do the right thing, you let the chips fall where they may.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Mike Johnson’s speakership gets a reprieve from MTG. For now.
