Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene stepped up her threat to oust Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday, distributing a scathing letter calling for his removal and calling out Republicans for acquiescing to his leadership.
In a five-page memo sent to her colleagues on Tuesday morning, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times, Ms. Greene, a right-wing Republican from Georgia, attacked Mr. Johnson point by point for his work as speaker. She accused him of recklessly pushing President Biden’s agenda and missing opportunities to advance GOP priorities.
Ms. Greene warned her colleagues that they risk losing touch with their voters if they continue to accept what she described as a “complete and utter capitulation” by Republicans under Mr. Johnson.
The letter left little doubt that Ms. Greene, who filed a resolution last month calling for Mr. Johnson’s removal but said it was merely a “warning,” intended to carry out her threat and to call a vote on his removal.
“If these actions by the leader of our conference continue, then we are not a Republican Party – we are a unified party hell-bent on remaining on the path of self-inflicted destruction,” she wrote. “I will not support or participate in any of this, and neither will the people we represent.”
Her heightened threat came at a difficult time for Mr. Johnson, who said he would soon unveil an emergency national security spending package that also includes aid to Ukraine, which has angered the far right. He also plans to hold a series of tough votes this week on legislation to renew a warrantless surveillance program that many in his party oppose.
In the letter, Ms. Greene reviewed the many cases since Mr. Johnson took the gavel five months ago as he negotiated with Democrats on major legislation – including several federal spending bills to prevent government shutdowns and the annual defense bill she ensured , that American troops were getting a pay raise — and made deals that she described as a betrayal of Republican values. His actions had “exasperated our Republican base so much and given them little reason to vote for a Republican majority in the House,” she wrote.
And condemning members of her party, she added: “If we win the House of Representatives this fall, it will only be because President Trump is on the ballot, not because we earned it.”
Much of her criticism stemmed from Mr. Johnson’s decision last month to push through a bipartisan $1.2 trillion government spending bill – one that a majority of Republicans voted against – which led Ms. Greene to reject the To file a resolution calling for Mr. Johnson’s removal.
She said at the time the move was “more of a warning than a minor blip” and raised questions about whether she planned to call for an early vote to oust Mr Johnson or whether she was simply seeking the outsized attention that would come with the threat was involved. The House of Representatives then left Washington for a two-week recess.
Mr Johnson hoped the break would help ease tensions that threatened his hold on office. In interviews, he referred to Ms. Greene as a friend. He said he shared her frustration over the spending legislation and that they had been texting and planning to meet after they returned to Washington.
Now the House of Representatives is back, and Ms. Greene is making it clear that she will not be so easily appeased.
“Fully funding abortion, the transgender agenda, the climate agenda, wars abroad and Biden’s border crisis does not mean ensuring freedom, opportunity and security for all Americans,” she wrote, quoting from a list of Mr. Johnson’s top priorities at the Election post.
She also criticized Mr. Johnson for failing to defund what she called a “witch hunt” by Jack Smith, the special counsel who prosecuted Mr. Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, and for improper conduct Handling of secret documents prosecuted. Taken together, she said, these would result in a “death sentence” for Mr. Trump.
“They want him dead,” Ms. Greene said of Democrats, “and our power over resources could have prevented it, but Speaker Johnson didn’t even try.”
(It is almost inconceivable that Democrats would have agreed to cut spending on Mr. Smith’s prosecution or that Mr. Biden would have signed legislation to that effect.)
On Monday evening, Ms. Greene also laid out her case against Mr. Johnson to voters at a town hall in Tunnel Hill, Georgia. “Am I angry? Yes,” she said. “My question is, are you angry?”
Ms. Greene’s letter seemed aimed primarily at making the speaker squirm over the Ukraine aid bill he has been agonizing over – initially refusing to take it up but more recently acquiescing to it Pleas from Mr. Biden, Democrats, other Republicans and world leaders to do so.
“Mike Johnson says publicly that funding Ukraine is now his top priority, even though he opposed it less than seven months ago,” Ms. Greene wrote. “The American people disagree – they believe our border is the only border worth fighting a war over, and I agree with them.”
For months, Ms. Greene has called the Ukraine measure her “red line” for ousting the speaker. Last week, in an interview with right-wing media host Tucker Carlson, Ms. Greene wondered aloud whether Mr. Johnson was being blackmailed into bringing it up “because he has absolutely nothing to do with what we want.”
Ms. Greene, a firebrand who forged an unlikely alliance with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy that led to her being kicked out of the far-right House Freedom Caucus, described herself in the letter as a “team player” but one who can’t do anything We will no longer support the current leadership if it continues on its current course.
She mocked the need for compromise in a time of divided government.
“Even with our razor-thin Republican majority, we could have at least secured the border, since it is the No. 1 problem in the country and is causing Biden to lose in poll after poll,” Ms. Greene wrote. “Nothing says shooting in our own tent than a Republican speaker of the House getting his rank-and-file members to vote to fund full-time abortion to pay our military soldiers.”
It is not clear whether Ms. Greene’s arguments will convince her colleagues, including some other far-right members who have expressed skepticism about a second move to remove a speaker. For example, Rep. Matt Gaetz, the Florida Republican who led the ouster of Mr. McCarthy, said that when he made his move in October, “I promised the country that we would not end up with a Democratic speaker.” Since the Republican Majority in the House of Representatives has since shrunk to a precarious vote, Mr Gaetz said: “I couldn’t make that promise again today.”
In her letter, Ms. Greene said that would not happen unless more Republicans retired and the party lost its majority or Republicans voted for Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the New York Democrat and minority leader.
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2024-04-09 11:00:06
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