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Tag: speaker of the house
Mike Johnson

House Democrats: We'll Protect Speaker From His Party's Far Right

House Democratic leadership announced Tuesday that they’ll allow members to block any effort from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and her tiny team of nihilists to oust Speaker Mike Johnson, a reminder of where the power sits in the House.

“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-NY), Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-MA), and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-TX) said in a statement.

Even among Republicans Greene’s tantrums have been wearing thin for a few weeks now, but since she had Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Thomas Massie of Kentucky as cosponsors, the theoretical threat remained real—Johnson’s margin of error is that small.

So Greene has continued the bombast.

“Johnson will do whatever Biden/Schumer want in order to keep the Speaker’s gavel in his hand, but he has completely sold out the Republican voters who gave us the majority,” she tweeted Sunday. “His days as Speaker are numbered.”

Republicans feared Greene would make her move Tuesday, but as she and Massie were going into a meeting with the House parliamentarian, she said that “the plan is still being developed.” Then she and Massie left, telling reporters that they had been “developing plans.”

Maybe the speaker’s days aren’t so numbered after all, at least not by her doing. There’s always the possibility that more Republicans will quit, turning the majority officially over to Democrats, but it won’t be through Greene’s efforts. Even Freedom Caucus loud-mouth Chip Roy of Texas says it would be a mistake.

“I do not believe that is the direction that the American people want us to take right now,” he told reporters Monday.

That’s likely in part because Donald Trump has given Johnson his support, twice in two weeks, and he rules their world.

Once the fever broke on Ukraine aid and Johnson was forced to do the right thing, most of them, particularly Johnson, have had to accept the reality that Democrats have control where it matters, making sure that the government continues to function and critical legislation gets passed.

But leader Jeffries wants to make sure that Johnson remembers it’s on their sufferance.

“Mike Johnson doesn’t need too many Democratic friends,” Jeffries toldThe New York Times.

He also quipped that Johnson is lucky to have the enemies that he does.

“[Greene] is one of the best things the speaker has going for him because so many people find her insufferable,” he said.

But does Democratic intervention make Johnson weaker among Republicans?

“Republicans will have to work that out on their end,” Jeffries said. “The reality of this particular Congress is that we are functioning in a manner consistent with a bipartisan governing coalition in order to get things done for the American people.”

And Jeffries isn’t going to let Johnson forget it.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Democrats Vowing To Protect Johnson As Speaker -- On One Condition

Democrats Vowing To Protect Johnson As Speaker -- On One Condition

Just five months after House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) succeeded ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) announced last week that she plans to file a motion to vacate the seat — once again — if Johnson agrees to bring the the bipartisan package, which includes Ukraine aid, to the House floor.

Axios reported Friday that Democratic lawmakers, like Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), who don't agree with Johnson on policy, are still willing to help him keep the speakership if it means voting against Greene.

The Florida leader wrote via X/Twitter, "I do not support Speaker Johnson but I will never stand by and let MTG to[sic] take over the people’s House."

According to a Sunday, March 24 CNN report, several other Democratic lawmakers willing to assist Johnson with maintaining his position say they will only do so if the speaker agrees to move forward on the $95 billion aid package that the US Senate already approved last month.

The news outlet notes, "While the exact timing remains unclear, the first procedural vote to oust Johnson is expected to take the form of a 'motion to table' – or kill – fellow Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s resolution to vacate the speakership. Democrats are weighing whether to kill the resolution on the first procedural vote, but say they need to hear the speaker publicly outline his intentions on Ukraine aid."

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) told CNN if Johnson "does the responsible thing, which is allowing members of Congress to vote on a bill that will pass and that is in our national security interests, and subsequent to that a non-serious actor that doesn’t want to govern brings a motion to vacate, yes I would motion to table in that circumstance."

According to CNN, some GOP House members worry "that Greene’s move to oust Johnson could cost them the House in November, though some hardliners are weighing whether they would ultimately vote to remove him."

The news outlet reports House Homeland Security Chair Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) said, "I’m disappointed. … I think it’s a distraction. We need to just – unfortunately this bill passed, and we’ve got a lot of other stuff now to do, some articles to walk over… we don’t need anything that’s going to disrupt that." He added that he hopes "Greene will ultimately decide not to call up her resolution for a vote, saying, "I don’t think we’ll let that happen this time. I mean, we’ll see how it goes, but I don’t think that’s going to happen."

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

Kevin McCarthy

Kevin McCarthy Is Taking Revenge -- On House Republicans

From primary challenges to getting blackballed from House Republicans caucuses, the eight Republicans who ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are feeling the blowback. His allies—and he has many of them—are making sure of that.

The Republican Main Street Caucus and Republican Governance Group have quietly booted Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, whose attention-getting stunts seem to be wearing thin with her colleagues. “She really wants to be a caucus of one. So we obliged her,” one House Republican told CNN.

Mace is facing a serious primary challenger, as is Rep. Bob Good of Virginia, the new chair of the Freedom Caucus and one of the anti-McCarthy eight. “A well-connected GOP outside spending group is planning to play in the [primary] races,” CNN reports, and McCarthy is likely to be directly involved on behalf of the challengers as well.

Where the real hammer is falling on this eight is in their fundraising. Others, including Reps. Tim Burchett of Tennessee, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Eli Crane, acknowledge that the big donors aren’t taking their calls anymore. Burchett told CNN’s Manu Raju that he “absolutely” had seen his donations dry up. “Some very wealthy folks, and they’ve been very kind to me in the past,” Burchett said of donors who had dropped him. “And I hope that we can mend the fences,” he added. Good luck to him on that one.

Crane of Arizona told Raju he was feeling a fundraising hit. “Yeah, that’s definitely a reality,” he said. “And I think anybody that participated in that knew that going forward.”

He’s right. They knew what they were doing, and they asked for this. Booting McCarthy meant ousting their most effective fundraiser. Ousting him meant pissing off all those big donors he’s been cultivating all these years. They’re friends of Kev, and they are happy to help him get his revenge.

Speaking of revenge, that’s what the ouster was all about. The spearhead of the chaos, Rep. Matt Gaetz, admitted it to a colleague in private correspondence obtained by The Daily Beast. According to the outlet, “Gaetz indicated to a friend that his effort to undercut, isolate, and ultimately remove McCarthy was, indeed, payback for the ethics probe.” That would be the House Ethics Committee investigation into Gaetz for alleged sex crimes, drug use, and campaign finance violations, to name a few.

Do any of Gaetz’s pals blame him for putting them in this position? Of course not. “I’m too busy working for the Lowcountry and helping elect President Trump to worry about Kevin McCarthy’s puppet,” Mace told CNN. “The DC swamp doesn’t want me back—too bad. I don’t work for them, I work for the people of the First Congressional District and no one else.”

The rest of the GOP conference loves to see McCarthy’s revenge. “If I’m those folks, one of the things that would scare the crap out of me more than anything else is an unhinged McCarthy,” a Republican lawmaker told CNN. “The guy’s the most prolific fundraiser, you’ve got a massive group of donors across the country that are pissed off about what’s happening, and you’ve got these boneheads that have caused it.”

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.

Mike Johnson

Trump Is Bossing House Speaker On Border And Ukraine Legislation

House Speaker Mike Johnson has been getting his marching orders directly from Donald Trump (and by extension Vladimir Putin) when it comes to funding for Ukraine and the immigration policy bill it’s tied up with. Johnson told Fox News’ Laura Ingraham Wednesday that he and Trump “have been talking about this pretty frequently. I talked to him the night before last about the same subject.”

Trump’s position is no secret. “I do not think we should do a Border Deal, at all, unless we get EVERYTHING needed to shut down the INVASION of Millions & Millions of people, many from parts unknown, into our once great, but soon to be great again, Country!” he yelled on Truth Social Wednesday.

Then he exerted some extra pressure: “Also, I have no doubt that our wonderful Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, will only make a deal that is PERFECT ON THE BORDER,” Trump wrote. “Remember, without Strong Borders and Honest Elections, we don’t have a Country!!!”

The timing of Trump’s outbursts wasn’t random. Johnson, along with Senate leaders Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell, met with President Joe Biden Wednesday. The three likely ganged up on Johnson to push the agreement, though no one is saying that. Biden, Schumer, and McConnell are all deeply committed to Ukraine assistance, and the only path for it to happen now is through an immigration agreement.

What Senate Republicans are saying is that Johnson and House Republicans need to step up on this, because they are unlikely to get a better deal. “To my Republican friends: To get this kind of border security without granting a pathway to citizenship is really unheard of. So if you think you’re going to get a better deal next time, in ’25, if President Trump’s president, Democrats will be expecting a pathway to citizenship for that,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told reporters. “So to my Republican colleagues, this is a historic moment to reform the border.”

Because it is such a good deal for Republican senators, plenty of Democrats in the House will not feel compelled to support it. Johnson would need a united Republican conference, but he’s unlikely to get it. The House Freedom Caucus has made their position clear: It’s their draconian anti-immigrant bill or nothing, and so far Johnson has been catering to them.

That might be because his speakership could be on the line. As Trump exerts more and more pressure, so do the MAGA members of Congress. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has already threatened to bring a motion to oust Johnson if he brings this Senate bill to the floor. “It’s really an amnesty deal where Democrats are going to bring in millions and millions of illegals and turn them into Democrat voters,” she told Fox.

Reprinted with permission from Daily Kos.