Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Wednesday compared Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to a Democrat as she reiterated her determination to proceed with an attempt to remove him from his position.
In a phone interview with CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday, Greene reportedly showed no sign of being deterred by warnings from within her conference to quell her resistance to Johnson. She sharply criticized Johnson for striking a bipartisan deal on a $1.2 trillion funding bill that averted a partial government shutdown.
Greene has criticized the bill for depending on Democratic votes for approval, not addressing many GOP policy demands, and not being released with enough time to read the entire bill before voting.
Greene said she believes Republicans across the country support her stance, stating GOP voters are “angry that our supposed Christian conservative, Republican Speaker of the House did this to them,” Raju reported.
“People are tired of Republicans who say one thing and then join the crowd and continue the same old nonsense everyone’s tired of,” Greene said, comparing Johnson’s tactics to those of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
Greene reportedly said Johnson has “literally turned into Mitch McConnell’s twin and worse. He’s a Democrat.”
“There’s not even any daylight between him and Nancy Pelosi at this point,” she reportedly added.
CNN reported that Greene dismissed the suggestion that removing Johnson could result in a more moderate Speaker, like House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.).
“We cannot get anyone more moderate than Mike Johnson,” Greene said. “I would argue Mike Johnson, we can’t get any further left than Mike Johnson. I think the Democrats might be happier with him than they are with Hakeem Jeffries.”
After Johnson negotiated the funding package last month, Greene introduced a resolution to remove Johnson from power. The Georgia firebrand has not moved to force a vote on her motion to vacate, but throughout the long holiday recess, Greene has continued to attack Johnson and warn that she would not be afraid to act on her threat if he moves forward with a Ukraine package as he has said he would.
This past Sunday, Johnson acknowledged Greene’s frustrations with the government spending package — frustrations he said he shared — but also defended his negotiations with the Democrats as the simple reality of governing in a divided Washington.
“These are not the perfect pieces of legislation that you and I and Marjorie would draft if we had the ability to do it differently,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox News’s “Sunday Night in America With Trey Gowdy.” “But with the smallest margin in U.S. history, we’re sometimes going to get legislation that we don’t like.”
