Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is pushing forward with her motion to vacate House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), but she argues her motion is more “respectful” than the vacate motion that ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
The Georgia Republican filed a motion to vacate against Johnson prior to the House’s Easter recess last month, but did not do so as a privileged resolution, meaning it does not require immediate action. Greene, speaking with Breitbart News, said that while she wants to advance the motion to vacate, she intends to do so in a way that emphasizes respect.
“Yes I am prepared to do it. But the process of how I am doing it and going about it is I am being respectful of my conference and a Republican majority and I’m also being respectful of my colleagues,” Greene said.
“I didn’t like how it was done when they threw out Kevin McCarthy. It was done by force, and no one had a say,” she added.
Greene decried the eight Republicans who voted to oust McCarthy in October, saying if they followed their rationale for ousting McCarthy they would have ousted Johnson “long before this.”
“So, for me, I think this has to be a process that’s worked carefully, respectfully, and we have to make sure it’s one that works and we’re prepared for because that three-and-a-half weeks after they ousted Kevin McCarthy, that destroyed our conference. We have never recovered from it,” Greene told the outlet.
The Georgia Republican also noted she has heard gripes over her motion to vacate, but argued that not wanting to change the status quo is part of “the whole problem” with Washington, D.C.
“From what I understand, people were kind of down about it, or just ‘uh, not again’ because that three-and-a-half weeks was so painful for our conference, and a lot of these Republicans don’t ever want to rock the boat or change the status quo,” Greene told the outlet.
“That’s the whole problem. That’s why the Democrats keep winning, and the Republicans keep losing, because Republicans never fight, because it’s uncomfortable, and Republicans never want to rock the boat,” she added. “They just want to show up here in Washington and do their committee hearings and pass their legislation that they can hopefully get signed into law and hang it on their wall and then go back to their district and do whatever they do. But no one is ever taking the important and strategic steps to save our country.”
Though Greene says she is moving forward in a “respectful” manner, she has had sharp words for her colleagues in the past, berating them during a speech in December at a Turning Point USA event in Arizona.
“The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer, and that’s because we have stupid people in Washington, D.C., and I can say that for a fact because I work with many of them. And I’m not just talking about Democrats,” Greene said.
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Greene has only received the public support of one other member of the House GOP conference, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who told his Republican colleagues that he supports the motion to vacate during a conference meeting on Tuesday.
Several Democrats have indicated they would help Johnson survive a bid to oust him if a motion to vacate was voted on. When the motion to vacate McCarthy came up last year, Democrats unanimously voted to remove the California Republican from the speakership.