The soap opera continues for Republicans in the U.S. House, and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Rome, is again right in the middle.
Two weeks after Greene surprised her colleagues by filing a motion to boot House Speaker Mike Johnson, the Georgia Republican is expected to talk to the Speaker for the first time today, after days of increasingly sharp attacks on her party’s leader.
“Mike Johnson has made a complete departure of who he is and what he stands for,” Greene told conservative talk host Tucker Carlson on Wednesday, “to the point where people are literally asking, ‘Is he blackmailed?’ What is wrong with him? Because he’s completely disconnected with what we want.”
For most lawmakers in Congress, the two-week legislative break for Easter has been a quiet time. For Greene, it’s been a drumbeat of outrage that she has shared on all sorts of conservative media outlets, focused mainly on efforts by the Speaker to hold a House vote this month on extra military aid for Ukraine.
“He is a damn fool, Steve,” Greene said to former top Trump aide Steve Bannon.
While Greene has been on the attack, Speaker Johnson has tried to downplay their differences.
“We don’t need any dissension right now,” the Speaker said in a Fox News interview.
It wasn’t that long ago —just back on October 25, 2023 — when Greene and Johnson were all smiles on the House floor, happily taking a selfie together after Johnson had been tapped to replace ousted GOP Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
Not even six months later, Greene is now on a very public crusade against Johnson, making it very clear what she wants.
“We need a new Speaker of the House,” she said bluntly on Tuesday.
So far, few Republicans have aligned themselves with Greene, not wanting to go through a repeat of the McCarthy ouster. But the fact that Greene has been hammering Speaker Johnson day after day — creating a buzz in conservative media circles — is not seen on Capitol Hill as a good sign for the Speaker’s future.
When the House returns to work next week, Greene could call up her resolution any time to force a vote on Johnson, which no one in either party believes will be approved.
“This is not going to happen,” said U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., one Democrat who has said he would vote to keep Johnson in power, and reject any move by Greene to boot out her own party’s Speaker. “She can’t pass anything in the House.”
But Greene isn’t giving up.
“There is zero daylight between what Nancy Pelosi did last Congress and what Mike Johnson is doing now,” Greene said.
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