Top Democrat in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., suggested that members of his party could vote to save Speaker Mike Johnson if his GOP colleagues move to oust him. On Tuesday, April 9, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., threatened to bring a motion to vacate forward if Johnson holds a vote on an international aid bill. The package would provide funding for Ukraine, Israel, the Indo-Pacific region and civilians in Gaza.
“Now I’ve made the observation, not a declaration, the observation that if the speaker were to do the right thing and allow the House to works its will with an up or down vote on the national security bill, then I believe there are a reasonable number of Democrats who would not want to see the speaker fall as a result of doing the right thing,” Jeffries told reporters on Thursday, April 11.
It is unclear how many Democrats would vote in Johnson’s favor if a motion to vacate is brought forward. Regardless, Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., told Straight Arrow News that Johnson needed to work more closely with Jeffries if he wanted to get bills passed in a nearly evenly divided Congress.
“If the speaker recognizes that going forward the only way we’re going to get things done is by working together, he can’t on one day ask for our help when he can’t get something done and on the next day treat us like we don’t exist,” Kildee said.
Johnson said there are many options under consideration for both the foreign aid package and a bill to reauthorize Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The section allows the government to spy on foreigners overseas without a warrant.
“How he handles the FISA process and how he handles funding Ukraine is going to tell our entire conference how to handle the motion to vacate,” Greene said.
Greene wrote a letter to her Republican colleagues that explained her lack of confidence in the speaker. It began with his decision to move a government funding bill forward that did not include many Republican policy priorities.
Johnson said he stands by his decision, saying the other option was a government shutdown.
“I just don’t think that would be helpful to us, from a political standpoint, for the Republican party to continue to govern, to maintain, keep and then grow our majority in November,” Johnson said. “I thought that would have been a great hindrance to it. So that wouldn’t be helpful, nor does a motion to vacate help us in that regard either. It would be chaos in the House.”
It is unclear how many Republicans would vote to remove Johnson. The House shut down for three weeks after representatives voted to oust Kevin McCarthy. Lawmakers said they thought the process to choose a replacement was frustrating and stressful. They also said they do not want to go through it again.
