Marjorie Taylor Greene to demand vote on ousting Mike Johnson as House speaker

WASHINGTON (TND) — GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene announced Wednesday that she would force a vote next week to oust Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson.

"I think every member of Congress needs to take that vote and let the chips fall where they may. And so next week, I am going to be calling this motion to vacate,” Greene said Wednesday during a news conference outside the Capitol.

Her decision comes one day after House Democrat leaders announced their support for Johnson.

“We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said in a statement.

Speaker Johnson issued a brief statement in response to the "Motion to Vacate."

"This motion is wrong for the Republican Conference, wrong for the institution, and wrong for the country," he said.

While holding up a "MAGA" hat from Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign Greene stated, "We need leaders in the House of Representatives that are going to get this done."

Greene filed a motion to vacate against Johnson more than a month ago after the House passed a $1.2 trillion spending bill on March 22 in order to avert a government shutdown by midnight.

In a video on social media, Green expressed her frustration calling it an "omnibus bill."

"No Republican in good conscience can vote for the uniparty minibus. This is not a Republican bill," she wrote alongside the video on X. "It is a Chuck Schumer, Democrat-controlled bill coming from the “Republican-controlled” House. The Speaker of the House should not bring it to the floor."

Only a small number of Republicans have publicly supported the congresswoman’s ousting attempts so far, including Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Az.

“Too many are trying to duck under the radar and this means the loud stupid voices are dominating,” another GOP member told Axios.

A third Republican reportedly argued that while Rep. Greene has caused problems, her effort to expel the speaker would hinge on partisan politics.

Greene and Massie said they were giving their colleagues the weekend to weigh their options before calling for the vote on her motion to vacate next week. Or, they said, Johnson could simply resign, pointing to the example of a previous speaker, Republican John Boehner of Ohio, who stepped aside in 2015 when hard-liners threatened to oust him.

Johnson has served as speaker for seven months after taking over for Kevin McCarthy, who was ousted in a similar fashion.

A majority vote is required to remove the speaker.

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Editor's note: The Associated Press contributed to this article.