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Tag: house speaker
Marjorie Taylor Greene

Democrats Standing With Republicans Against 'Pro-Putin' GOP Faction

Some House Democrats and House Republicans are coming together toward a common opponent: far-right “pro-Putin” hardliners in the House Republican conference, who appear to be led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).

Congresswoman Greene has been threatening to oust the Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. Last month she filed a “motion to vacate the chair.” If she chooses to call it up she could force a vote on the House floor to try to remove Speaker Johnson.

House Democrats say they are willing to vote against ousting Johnson, as long as the Speaker puts on the floor desperately needed and long-awaited legislation to fund aid to Ukraine and Israel. Johnson has refused to put the Ukraine aid bill on the floor for months, but after Iran attacked Israel Johnson switched gears. Almost all Democrats and a seemingly large number of Republicans want to pass the Ukraine and Israel aid packages.

Forgoing the possibility of installing Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker, which is conceivable given Johnson’s now one-vote majority, Democrats say if Johnson does the right thing, they will throw him their support.

“I think he’ll be in good shape,” to get Democrats to support him, if he puts the Ukraine aid bill on the floor, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) told CNN Thursday. “I would say that there’s a lot of support for the underlying bills. I think those are vital.”

“If these bills were delivered favorably, and the aid was favorably voted upon, and Marjorie Taylor Greene went up there with a motion to remove him, for instance, I think there’s gonna be a lot of Democrats that move to kill that motion,” Congressman Krishnamoorthi said. “They don’t want to see him getting punished for doing the right thing.”

“I think it is a very bad policy of the House to allow one individual such as Marjorie Taylor Greene, who is an arsonist to this House of Representatives,” Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) told CBS News’ Scott MacFarlane, when asked about intervening to save Johnson. He added he doesn’t want her “to have so much influence.”

Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, one of several Republicans who won their New York districts in 2022, districts that were previously held by Democrats, opposes Greene’s motion to vacate – although he praised the Georgia GOP congresswoman.

CNN’s Manu Raju reports Republicans “say it’s time to marginalize hardliners blocking [their] agenda.”

D’Esposito, speaking to Raju, called for “repercussions for those who completely alienate the will of the conference. The people gave us the majority because they wanted Republicans to govern.”

Rep. Mike Lawler, like D’Esposito is another New York Republican who won a previously Democratic seat in 2022. Lawler spoke out against the co-sponsor of Greene’s motion to vacate, Rep. Tim Massie (R-KY), along with two other House Republicans who are working to block the Ukraine aid bill via their powerful seats on the Rules Committee.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-NJ), a former Navy pilot, blasted Greene.

“Time is of the essence” for Ukraine, Rep. Sherrill told CNN Wednesday night. “The least we can do is support our Democratic allies, especially given what we know Putin to do. To watch a report and to think there are people like Marjorie Taylor Greene on the right that are pro-Putin? That are pro-Russia? It is really shocking.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX), as NCRM reported Thursday, had denounced Greene.

“I guess their reasoning is they want Russia to win so badly that they want to oust the Speaker over it,” he said, referring to the Ukraine aid bill Greene and her cohorts want to tank. “I mean that’s a strange position to take.”

The far-right hardliners are also causing chaos in the House.

“Things just got very heated on the House floor,” NBC News’ Julie Tsirkin reported earlier Thursday. “Group of hardliners were trying to pressure Johnson to only put Israel aid on the floor and hold Ukraine aid until the Senate passed HR2.”

HR2 is the House Republicans’ extremist anti-immigrant legislation that has n o chance of passage in the Senate nor would it be signed into law by President Biden.

“Johnson said he couldn’t do it, and [Rep. Derrick] Van Orden,” a far-right Republican from Wisconsin “called him ‘tubby’ and vowed to bring on the MTV [Motion to Vacate.]”

“No one in the group [Gaetz, Boebert, Burchett, Higgins, Donalds et al.] was threatening Johnson with an MTV,” Tsirkin added. “Van Orden seemed to escalate things dramatically…”

Despite Greene’s pro-Putin and anti-Ukraine positions, her falsehoods about “Ukrainian Nazis,” and Russians not slaughtering Ukrainian clergy, reporters continue to “swarm”:

Watch the videos above or at this link.

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Watch Margie Struggle To Explain Her  'Motion To Vacate' House Speaker

Watch Margie Struggle To Explain Her  'Motion To Vacate' House Speaker

Georgia’s main contribution to the degradation of competent government, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, just put Speaker Mike Johnson on notice with a motion to vacate the chair, the process that some Freedom Caucus Republicans used to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy last fall. It’s filed, but she hasn’t yet activated it to force a floor vote. That was probably a smart move on her part since she’d definitely lose if she tried to derail the two-week recess the House is ready to set off on.

Watch her try to justify her action to reporters:

“I filed the motion to vacate today,” she said, “but it's more of a warning and a pink slip.” (Note to Marge: A pink slip is not a warning.) “I respect our conference,” she continued.

“I do not wish to inflict pain on our conference and to throw the throw the House in chaos, but this is basically a warning, and it's time for us to go through the process take our time and find a new speaker of the House that will stand with Republicans and our Republican majority instead of standing with the Democrats.”

In other words: It's time to oust him, but I'm not doing it yet, but it's time, but I don't want to cause chaos. Sure, Marge, sure. Greene went on to say that she’d move forward with it if Johnson puts Ukraine aid on the floor.

This is reminiscent of what then-Freedom Caucus member Mark Meadows did to former Republican Speaker John Boehner in 2015. Meadows filed a motion to vacate but didn’t activate it. The move from Meadows and his fellow maniacs ultimately contributed to Boehner’s resignation. That probably won’t be the result Greene gets this time around, but it complicates Johnson’s precarious hold on his conference, particularly since his margin on votes is now so slim.

At the moment, Greene doesn’t seem to have any takers. Several of the members who voted to oust McCarthy aren’t on board this time around, not yet anyway. Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett told CNN, “Marjorie is my friend, but honestly, if the Republicans do that, they know they'll be handed it over to [Democratic leader] Hakeem Jeffries, and that's the bottom line.”

Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, one of the eight who voted to boot McCarthy, is also a no as is the ringleader of that previous fight, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida. At least one of those eight—Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina is playing coy. “We’ll see,” he told reporters.

Johnson has essentially no votes to lose on a motion to vacate—a situation made even more dire by the just-announced early retirement of Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI), as soon as next month. Johnson’s also in a singularly weak position in the conference right now, and that showed in Friday’s government funding vote. Not only did Johnson have to rely on Democrats again to pass it, but also the majority of Republicans voted against it, 112 to 101. That’s hardly a vote of confidence from his conference.

The uncertainty for Johnson, and the fact that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Jeffries could win a majority if another speaker vote comes up, Democrats are in a good position to extract some concessions from him, and that’s just what they’re preparing to do. That concession: the Senate’s supplemental funding bill to aid Ukraine.

“I think Speaker Johnson should demonstrate a willingness to govern in a way that is helpful to the plight of democracy and our allies across the world,” said Rep. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, told Politico, saying she’d vote to table the motion to vacate.

“It's not a question of saving Mike Johnson,” Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said. “I’ll make a common cause and an alliance with anybody in Congress who will try to save the Ukrainian people at this point.”

Through all 15 of the votes it took to elect McCarthy speaker last year, Democrats held firm behind Jeffries. They did it again during the arduous process this past fall, when Republicans couldn’t figure out how to replace McCarthy. Now that the Republican majority is next to nonexistent—depending on absences and no votes on any given day—Johnson’s survival as speaker is Democrats’ hands.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Mike Johnson

Can Biden Fix House GOP's Looming Budget Disaster?

Since Republicans took control of the House following the 2022 midterms, the U.S. has faced a crisis of governance. Unable to quit their own petty infighting, caught up in ugly leadership squabbles, and unwilling to move without the blessing of Donald Trump, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson now commands a Congress well past the brink of disaster. After being unable to pass necessary legislation and wasting endless hours on a faux impeachment inquiry of Biden that is going nowhere, Republicans have generated such a maelstrom of incompetence that it’s putting millions of lives and the stability of the planet at risk.

Contrary to what Republicans apparently believe, Congress is expected to do things. It has to meet the challenges of the day, promote policies that assist the nation, and deal with the day-to-day affairs that keep government functional. Since they gained their narrow margin, Republicans have done exactly none of these things.

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden summoned Republican congressional leaders to a meeting at the White House. With Ukraine in retreat after running out of critical ammunition and a government shutdown only four days away, this could be the most consequential meeting in decades. Will Republicans wake up for one moment to place the nation and the world ahead of their desire to please Trump and feed their childish egos? Or will they drive the nation, and the world, onto the rocks?

After being selected for speaker on the basis that no one knew who the hell he was so no particular faction was out for his throat, Johnson has shown himself to be singularly inadequate for the role.

As Joan McCarter has reported, Johnson …

  • Swiftly burned through any honeymoon period and found that his every statement or action was being scrutinized by House members sure that they would do a better job in the big office.
  • He betrayed other congressional leaders by reneging on a budget deal after everyone thought the issues were settled.
  • When months of negotiations in the Senate produced a border bill that gave Republicans everything they had been demanding, Johnson refused to even consider it on orders from Trump.
  • With the clock winding down on the end of the year, Johnson wasted time on a pointless impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
  • With the stability of the Western world on the line, Johnson has repeatedly dithered and stalled on providing any assistance to Ukraine while Republicans increasingly look to Putin.
  • And with a government shutdown looming, Johnson sent the House out on a vacation that’s not set to end until three days before the deadline.

Johnson is not just courting disaster, he is a disaster. Either he’s astoundingly ineffectual, or he’s an arsonist set on burning down America. It’s genuinely unclear which of these things is true.

We may find out today.

“Every day that Speaker Johnson causes our national security to deteriorate, America loses,” said White House spokesman Andrew Bates. “And every day that he puts off a clean vote [on assistance to Ukraine], congressional Republicans’ standing with the American people plunges. Running away for an early vacation only worsens both problems.”

Even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is tired of the incompetence on the other end of the Capitol. “Shutting down the government is harmful to the country. And it never produces positive outcomes—on policy or politics,” said McConnell.

At the same time everyone is trying to get Johnson to do his job, extremist Republicans in the House Freedom Caucus are doing everything they can to provide more road bumps.

Last week they submitted a list of policy riders to Johnson, including such nonsense items as zeroing out Mayorkas’ salary, blocking military members from traveling out of state to obtain abortions, and defunding environmental and climate policies. In all, there are more than 20 of these poison pills, and the Freedom Caucus is declaring that it will block any attempt to reach an agreement unless America is forced to swallow the whole bottle.

A real speaker, one with respect from the members of their party and the strength to push past fanatics bent on nothing more than causing disruption, would push past this. Unfortunately, America is saddled with Mike Johnson.

That doesn’t make a good outcome impossible, but it certainly makes it almost infinitely more difficult.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Mike Johnson

Shutdown Clock Ticking As GOP Plays Games With State Of The Union

Five months into the 2024 fiscal year, House Republicans still can’t agree on how to fund the government, with a partial shutdown deadline on Friday. While they’re nearly half a year behind on this fundamental task, some of them are playing games with President Joe Biden, agitating House leadership to disinvite him from giving the State of the Union address if he doesn’t send them a 2025 budget beforehand.

Seriously. Here’s Freedom Caucus member Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania telling Fox News that Biden’s speech should be blocked until he sends his proposed budget: “He comes at the invitation of Congress. Republicans are in charge of the House. There’s no reason that we need to invite him.”

They even have a bill in the works to prevent future presidents from delivering the SOTU if they haven’t submitted a budget by the first Monday in February. That’s the deadline set by law, though there’s no enforcement mechanism in the law, and presidents missing the deadline is common. The law wouldn’t apply until next year, but Republicans seem to think it makes them look serious to have a bill, and they will use it to argue for blocking Biden’s speech this year.

“This is irresponsible,” Rep. Buddy Carter of Georgia said to Fox News. “Until Congress receives the president’s national security strategy and budget, he has no business delivering a State of the Union address.”

While Republicans are trying to shift the budget mess onto Biden, they’re facing a Friday deadline to stop a partial government shutdown this year, and they are foundering. The House isn’t even back from the Presidents Day recess until Wednesday, and Speaker Mike Johnson clearly doesn’t have a handle on the situation. Johnson whined about it to members of the GOP conference in a call Friday night, complaining that they are undermining his bargaining position with their constant infighting and chaos.

Members of the Freedom Caucus, meanwhile, are refusing to back down from their demands that a slew of poison-pill policy riders be included in the funding package and for more border security funding—after Republicans killed the Senate’s bipartisan border security bill.

"The only money we're giving to America is to secure our border,” Rep. Warren Davidson (R-OH) told Fox on Monday.

House and Senate negotiators were aiming to release a bipartisan agreement Sunday night, but the talks broke down over the House hard-liners intransigence. “Unfortunately, extreme House Republicans have shown they’re more capable of causing chaos than passing legislation,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer wrote to his colleagues Sunday night. “It is my sincere hope that … Speaker Johnson will step up to once again buck the extremists in his caucus and do the right thing.”

To that end, Biden has entered the fray, setting up a meeting Tuesday with the top four congressional leaders—Biden, Senate leaders Schumer and Mitch McConnell, Johnson, and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries—where hopefully the combined forces of Biden, Schumer, and Jeffries can strengthen Johnson’s spine against the extremists.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.