Marjorie Taylor Greene calls on Johnson to resign after foreign aid bills pass: ‘If he doesn’t do so, he will be vacated’

CNN
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Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Sunday that House Speaker Mike Johnson “betrayed” Republican voters after the House approved new aid to Ukraine, threatening to call a vote to oust him he was not resigning.

“Mike Johnson’s term is over. He must do the right thing to resign and allow us to move forward in a controlled process. If he doesn’t, he will be released,” Greene said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures.”

After months of resisting introducing a foreign aid bill in the House, Johnson joined Democrats on Saturday to propose a $95 billion foreign aid package, including $61 billion dollars for Ukraine and its regional partners. The bill – which passed with the support of 210 Democrats and 101 Republicans – now goes to the Senate, which is expected to give final approval this week.

If Greene and her supporters follow through on their threat to force a vote on his ouster as president, Johnson will almost certainly have to rely on Democrats to bail him out.

The Georgia hardliner is one of at least three Republicans who have said they would support a move to oust Johnson — whose majority is so slim it can’t afford to lose a single Republican in a party vote.

Johnson maintains he hasn’t asked for help from any Democrats, but senior Republicans believe they can count on support from across the aisle to quickly kill any motion to leave the president’s chair – a sentiment that may have boosted Johnson’s confidence in moving forward. with his projects.

It remains unclear whether Democrats will offer him a lifeline. But they have expressed a desire to save Johnson, especially after he challenged his right flank to move forward with a foreign aid package that closely resembles a version passed by the Senate.

Rep. Ro Khanna said Sunday he would vote against a motion to remove Johnson from the presidency. “I’m a progressive Democrat and I think a few progressive Democrats would do that,” Khanna said on ABC’s “This Week.”

“I disagree with President Johnson on many issues and have been very critical of him, but he did the right thing here and he deserves to stay in office until the end of this term,” said the California Democrat, who added that “In politics, not everything has to be transactional.

When asked why she delayed the resignation motion on Saturday, Greene claimed Sunday that she “was responsible for it the whole time” but suggested the move would happen.

“This was all possible because of Mike Johnson’s betrayals,” Greene said.

Johnson, for his part, dismissed the prospect of an ouster attempt Saturday night. “I’m not walking around this building worrying about a motion to evacuate,” he said after the foreign aid package passed.

“I have to do my job. … I have done here what I believe is the right thing to allow the House to do what it wants. And like I said, you do the right thing and let the issues fall where they may.

CNN’s Annie Grayer, Melanie Zanona, Manu Raju and Rashard Rose contributed to this report.