Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Files A Motion To Oust House Speaker Mike Johnson, Says GOP Majority Is ‘A Failure’

On Friday, controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) filed a motion to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Johnson has served as House Speaker since October 2023, when he took over for Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted on October 3, when eight House Republicans and all Democrats supported a motion by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) to remove him.

It was not instantly clear how the House would act on Greene’s motion, which requires only a majority vote to remove its Speaker.

She did not file the motion as a special bill – which would have a vote forced within two legislative days – but instead, as a regular motion, which could be referred to a committee, where it would likely be disregarded.

Greene said in a speech on the House floor that the GOP majority was “a failure.”

After filing the motion, Greene spoke to reporters.

“We were promised regular order,” she stated. “That’s what our conference had started out, with rules, and promises to the American people that we would bring regular order back to Congress.”

“Speaker Johnson has betrayed that by passing three hours and then forcing us to pass an hour to vote on a two-part omnibus, the second one being today,” she claimed.

“He also only gave us – I mean, I don’t even know, we had one day, basically, to read 1,012 pages breaking the 72-hour rule,” Greene recounted.

“This is a betrayal of the American people,” the Georgia representative declared. “This is a betrayal of Republican voters.”

“And the bill that we were forced to vote on forced Republicans to choose between funding to pay our soldiers, and in doing so, funding late-term abortion,” she then recalled.

“This bill was basically a dream and a wish list for Democrats and for the White House,” Greene stated. “It was completely led by [Senate Majority Leader] 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,” she then recalled.

“I filed the motion to vacate today, but it’s more of a warning and a pink slip,” Greene said. “I respect our conference. I paid all my dues to my conference. I’m a member in good standing, and I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the House into chaos.”

She also stated that she’s “not saying that it won’t happen in two weeks or it won’t happen in a month or who knows when,” but she is “saying the clock has started,” and it is time for the House’s “conference to choose a new speaker.”

She also said she did not discuss the motion with her ally, former President Donald Trump.

The House left for a two-week recess on March 22 and will not consider the motion until after it returns to session on April 9.

Raj Shah, a spokesman for Johnson, said that the speaker’s focus is “on governing,” and he is going to keep pushing “conservative legislation” that keeps America’s border safe, their national defense strong and demonstrates how they will increase their “majority.”

Gaetz had told reporters that he did not support a motion to vacate the chair and oust Johnson.

“If we vacated this speaker, we’d end up with a Democrat,” he stated. “When I vacated the last one, I made a promise to the country that we would not end up with the Democrat speaker. And I was right. I couldn’t make that promise again.”

The Florida representative was asked how that could happen.

“We’d have Republicans cross over,” he replied. “I worry that we’ve got Republicans who would vote for [Minority Leader] Hakeem Jeffries at this point. I really do. I take no joy in saying that. But you can only vacate the speaker if you know that the party leadership won’t change hands. I knew that with certainty last time. I don’t know it with certainty this time.”

Some moderate Democrats already said they would vote to save Johnson if someone tried ousting him, not out of love but to avoid another fight over replacement that would bring all business in the House to a standstill.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-New York) called several times on Friday for Democrats to join the majority of Republicans in saving the House Speaker. He stated that Greene’s motion would “make chaos and create unnecessary distractions.”

The Georgia Representative had already been dropping hints about her plans.

On Friday, she was asked about a motion to vacate on Steve Bannon‘s podcast Friday, before the spending vote.

“We are making that decision on a minute-by-minute basis today, Steve, and I think you can stay tuned,” she mentioned. “I urge you to watch what happens.”

Johnson is already one of the most conservative House Speakers in recent memory.

During an interview with CBS News in March, Johnson refused to say whether embryos are “children” when he was pressed to answer.

When asked if destroying an embryo is “murder,” Johnson offered a vague response.

Johnson said that in-vitro fertilization is a problem that “policymakers have to determine how to handle.” He announced his belief that it is not up to Congress to decide upon IVF policy and that it should be the state’s responsibility to decide.

Green’s appeal of her $100,000 in fines for refusing to wear a mask on the House floor during the Covid-19 pandemic was rejected by the Supreme Court.

During the State of the Union, Greene repeatedly heckled President Joe Biden.