U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican representing Georgia’s 14th Congressional District, filed a motion on March 22 to remove Speaker Mike Johnson from his position as speaker of the house. This comes after Kevin McCarthy left the House last October after getting ousted by Greene.
When comforted about the notion, Greene said, “It’s more of a warning” and also said, “We’ve started the clock to start the new process to elect a new speaker,” according to Associated Press. Johnson’s spokesperson Raj Shah said, “Speaker Johnson always listens to the concerns of members, but is focused on governing,” adding, that Johnson “Will continue to push conservative legislation that secures our border, strengthens our national defense and demonstrates how we’ll grow our majority.”
Greene’s said her reasons for filing to vacate Speaker Johnson was, “He should not bring funding for Ukraine,” according to Associated Press.
Tons of supporters of Ukraine have become frustrated with the delay of the aid to Ukraine because of the lack of ammunition that Ukrainians have. Johnson has been unwilling to put a $95 billion bill that passed in the Senate that would aid a national security package and includes funding to Ukraine.
Now that there is a threat of his removal, he has now promised that funding for Ukraine is now a priority for him. This funding to Ukraine has now become in jeopardy now that he is threatened with being removed could make Democrats vote against his removal and make more demands since he may need their votes to save his position.
Not all Republicans seem to be going along with Greene’s threat to remove Johnson from the speaker position. U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican from Tennessee’s 2nd District said, “I don’t think it’s the right time.”
His reasoning being that Johnson’s removal could cause Democrats to win the House majority in this election year.
“If we did it right now, we’d elect (Democrat Minority Leader) Hakeem Jeffries as speaker,” Burchett said.
Matt Gaetz, Republican U.S. representative for Florida’s 1st Congressional district who was one of the leading critics of McCarthy and who led the motion to remove him as speaker said, “When I vacated the last one, I made a promise to the country that we would not end up with a Democrat speaker … I couldn’t make that promise again today,”
If Johnson were to be removed as the speaker of the house he would be replaced temporarily by Republican U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry from North Carolina’s 10th Congressional District. McHenry is the chair of the House Financial Services Committee.
He served as speaker of the house during the three weeks Republicans were looking for candidates to replace McCarthy. They rallied behind Johnson due to his conservative positions after some said McCarthy was too “moderate.” McHenry would serve as the temporary speaker of the house until they could find a replacement for Johnson.
