Anyone who thinks Marjorie Taylor Greene will drop her threat to force the removal of the Republican US House speaker, Mike Johnson, is “high, drunk, or simply out of their mind”, a senior aide to the far-right Georgia congresswoman said.
“That’s absurd,” her deputy chief of staff Nick Dyer told Politico, adding that Greene was “not going to tell the press” her plans for activating the motion to vacate she filed more than a month ago.
“Anyone who is saying she is backing down is high, drunk, or simply out of their mind.”
Congress returned to Washington on Monday with Greene’s threat hanging over the speaker, her fellow Republican.
Greene filed the motion after Johnson oversaw passage of a government spending bill with Democratic support.
Since then, the speaker has angered far-right Republicans further by overseeing passage of aid to Ukraine, the reauthorisation of government surveillance powers and other moves reliant on Democratic support or seen as too civil to the other party.
Johnson must govern with a tiny majority after his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, became the first speaker ejected by his own party when extreme right Republicans rebelled last October.
But though Johnson has a hard-right record himself, and was involved in Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 election, he retains support from the former president and from Democrats set to vote to keep him in his post if Greene decides to strike. Whether Johnson could survive being seen as reliant on Democrats is an open question.
On Sunday, Jared Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, told MSNBC: “The idea of allowing Marjorie Taylor Greene, someone who literally, you know, would let the world burn, you know, with her isolationist foreign policy who has talked about states seceding from the union …
“The idea of letting [Greene] sit in the people’s House and the well of Congress, giving a speech, removing any speaker and having that powerful moment, there is just no way Democrats are going to let her do that. I’m not going to let her do that. We won’t even let her name a post office. We’re not going to let her take out the speaker.”
But it does seem likely Greene will make her move, if only to avoid climbing down.
“Permanent funding for Ukraine is exactly what they want and Mike Johnson will give it to them,” she said, appearing to refer to Democrats and/or the so-called “deep state”, the supposed permanent government of operatives and bureaucrats that conspiracy theorists say exists to thwart populist leaders.
“Peace is not an option for them because it doesn’t fit the government appropriations war business and economic model, which is vile and disgusting,” Greene said.
“They’re [sic] plan is keep funding the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and when that doesn’t work, after all the Ukrainian men have been slaughtered, next they will put American troops on the ground.
“Johnson will do whatever [Joe] Biden/[Senate majority leader Chuck] 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. His days as speaker are numbered.”
Greene is backed by Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona.
Massie said: “Speaker Johnson enlisted a majority of Democrats to override a majority of Republicans so he could: 1) pass an omnibus that spends more than [former speaker Nancy] Pelosi did, including a new FBI building. 2) reauthorise warrantless spying on Americans 3) send $60bn to Ukraine.
“Unforgivable.”
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