House Republicans are anxious about going back to Washington D.C. because they have to deal with Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right Rep., and her threat to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson due to his lack of transphobia.
Two weeks ago, Greene surprisingly filed a motion to remove Johnson from his position because he allowed the House to vote on a $1.2 trillion government funding bill today that included funding for “trans ideology,” as she put it. The bill, which mostly left out her and other far-right Republicans’ desired anti-LGBTQ+ provisions, passed the House on March 22 in a 286 -134 vote.
Now, she’s focused on Johnson’s promise to consider a bill that would provide funds for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s military invasion. In February, the Senate passed a bill which would give $60 billion in new funds for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel to attack Gaza, and also $9 billion for Gaza to cope with the humanitarian devestation of the U.S.-funded attack. Johnson must now either vote on that bill or come up with a different proposal to satisfy Greene and other far-right lawmakers.
Greene and her far-right colleagues have objected to funding Ukraine, stating that the U.S. must do more to secure its southern border against an “invasion” of Central and Southern American immigrants. Greene and her allies, like former President Donald Trump, have portrayed the immigrants as murderers and drug dealers of the deadly opiod fentanyl rather than as people fleeing poverty and violence in their home countries.
With a slim Republican majority in the House, Johnson will probably need to seek support from Democrat representatives, who generally back funding for Ukraine, to pass any funding bill. This has led Greene to continue her threats against Johnson. Over the break, she repeatedly criticized him on the social media platform X for allegedly supporting Democrats in assisting Ukraine and undocumented immigrant “illegals.”
“Who is Mike Johnson working for? It’s clearly not the American people,” she stated in an April 4 post. “Our Republican Speaker of the House is upsetting many of our members by relying on Democrats to pass major bills and working with Dems by giving them everything they want,” she wrote in an April 8 post.
“Do you see the difference between ‘Republican’ Speaker Johnson and [former] Democrat Speaker Nancy Pelosi? That’s right, there isn’t one!We need a new Speaker of the House!!” she wrote on April 5. She even complained about Johnson in an April 4 broadcast with anti-LGBTQ+ former Fox News host Tucker Carlson.
She has yet to ask for the House to recognize her filing, worried that it could result in a Democratic Speaker if Republicans remain divided on who to choose as their next Speaker. Whenever the House formally recognizes Greene’s motion to vacate the speakership, the chamber will have two days to consider whether to take action on it.
In late 2023, Republican House members adopted a rule that allows them to easily oust their speaker if just one House member wants to. The rule was used to oust former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) at the end of 2023 after he worked with Democrats to pass a budget bill, something Johnson is presently being accused of committingIt’s not