Far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene warned her congressional colleagues Tuesday she would move to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson should Congress pass military aid for Ukraine but hold off on approving conservative priorities like US border enforcement.
“I will not tolerate our elected Republican Speaker Mike Johnson serving the Democrats and the Biden administration and helping them achieve their policies that are destroying our country,” Greene (R-Ga.) wrote in a scathing “Dear Colleague” letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Post, explaining her threat to remove Johnson (R-La.) over an additional $60 billion in Ukraine funding.
“This has been a complete and total surrender to, if not complete and total lockstep with, the Democrats’ agenda that has angered our Republican base so much and given them very little reason to vote for a Republican House majority,” Greene added.
The rabble-rouser also accused Johnson of “throwing our own razor-thin majority into chaos by not serving his own GOP conference that elected him” — as her own threat to oust him hangs in the balance.
“I think all of my other Republican colleagues recognize this is a distraction from our mission,” the speaker said on Fox News March 31 of Greene’s motion to vacate the chair, which she filed March 22. “She’s very frustrated about, for example, the last appropriations bills.”
Greene filed her motion as the House was voting to approve $1.66 trillion in federal spending packages for the remainder of fiscal year 2024, and later threatened to force a vote on the resolution if Johnson brings Ukraine aid to the floor.
The motion to vacate is not privileged, meaning it did not immediately receive a vote but can be called up if the Georgia congresswoman chooses to change its designation.
In her letter, Greene accused Johnson of changing positions on the Ukraine-Russia war since he was elevated to the speaker’s chair — and of being on the wrong side of the issue from American voters, with recent polling finding that nearly three-quarters support a negotiated peace.
Officials from NATO nations, President Biden and the congressional Gang of Four — including Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — have all called on Johnson to pass Ukraine funding.
The Senate in February passed a $95 billion national security supplemental bill with funding for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, but it has languished in the House ever since.
On Tuesday, Greene also floated another potential red line for her vacate motion, related to the reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which privacy-minded lawmakers have opposed due to it granting federal law enforcement the ability to surveil Americans without a warrant.
Greene went on to accuse Johnson of failing to live up to the “seven tenets” of conservative leadership that he pledged would guide his leadership decisions after winning the gavel last October — while passing millions of dollars in left-wing earmarks as part of federal spending bills.
“Allowing us one day, rather than 72 hours, to review a 1,000-plus page bill to which no amendments could be offered was not ‘ensuring total transparency, open processes, and regular order,’” she said of the government funding bill that prompted her motion to vacate, citing one of Johnson’s tenets.
“Even with our razor-thin Republican majority, we could have at least secured the border, with it being the number one issue in the country and being the issue that is causing Biden to lose in poll after poll,” she added.
“We could have also taken out funding for abortion and the trans agenda on kids if our own Speaker would have allowed us to offer amendments,” she also said of the earmarks packed into the bill that a majority of House Republicans voted against.
“Instead, Mike Johnson worked with Chuck Schumer rather than with us, and gave Joe Biden and the Democrats everything they wanted—no different from how a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries would have done,” Greene fumed.
The Georgian then denied that entering another speakership fight would imperil the Republican House majority — and hand it to the Democrats ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
“That only happens if more Republicans retire early, or Republicans actually vote for Hakeem Jeffries,” Greene claimed. “It’s not complicated, it’s simple math.”
Johnson’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The House is currently comprised of 218 Republicans and 213 Democrats, with four vacancies. The GOP number will be reduced to 217 with the retirement of Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) April 19, meaning Republicans can only lose one vote before relying on Democrats to pass legislation.