By LISA MASCARO and FARNOUSH AMIRI (Associated Press)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Mike Johnson is facing the potential of being removed from his role after hard-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a “motion to vacate” on Friday in the middle of a House vote on a $1.2 trillion package to keep the government open.
It’s the same political situation that led to the removal of the previous Republican speaker, Kevin McCarthy, just five months ago when far-right conservatives rebelled over his compromise with Democrats to prevent a federal shutdown. But this one faces more challenges with less GOP support.
The House is set to leave town for a two-week spring break at the end of Friday’s session, and it’s unlikely that any vote on removing Johnson, of Louisiana, would happen soon.
“Speaker Johnson always listens to the concerns of members but is focused on governing,” spokesman Raj Shah said. “He will continue to push conservative legislation that secures our border, strengthens our national defense and demonstrates how we’ll grow our majority.”
Under the rules, any member can make the motion privileged, which would require leaders to schedule a vote within two legislative days. But it can also simply sit until lawmakers return next month.
Yet even the threat of removal, the ultimate punishment for a speaker, will hang over Johnson’s young speakership, just months on the job.
No speaker had been removed this way until McCarthy’s dramatic ouster last fall, a swift, stunning and chaotic episode that essentially shuttered the House chamber for weeks as Republicans searched for a new speaker.
Greene is a leading ally of the Republicans’ presumed 2024 presidential nominee, former president Donald Trump, and McCarthy, of California, was toppled by a similar contingent of far-right Republicans led at the time by Trump ally Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida.
The Georgia congresswoman has warned she would try to remove the speaker if he pushes ahead with a package to support Ukraine as it battles Russia’s invasion.
Johnson, who has refused to put a $95 billion Senate-passed national security package with Ukraine funds to a House vote, has nevertheless promised to fund Ukraine as the a next priority.
With the most narrow majority in modern times, Johnson has a weak grasp on his Republicans in the House.
He can risk only a few defectors on any vote, meaning he could be easily ousted, unless Democrats jump in with their votes to protect him.
Still, many Republicans in Congress were embarrassed by McCarthy’s removal as speaker, which exposed deep party divisions and infighting that left their new majority, in office since January, unable to fully function on priorities.
The night before Friday’s voting, Gaetz warned against trying to oust Johnson, saying that Republican lawmakers fed up with the process would cross the aisle and vote for the Democratic leader, Representative Hakeem Jeffries of New York.
The idea of a Republican House majority casting votes to make a Democrat the House speaker would be an unheard of political situation.
However, because Republicans are currently in conflict with each other, this could also happen as they attempt to bring Congress back to a state of normalcy.
