Bipartisan 359-43 vote saves House speaker’s job

Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday easily batted down an attempt by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to oust him from his post, after Democrats linked arms with most Republicans to fend off a second attempt by GOP hard-liners to strip the gavel from their party leader.

The vote to kill the effort was an overwhelming 359-43, with seven Democrats voting “present.”

Unlike the ouster that toppled Kevin McCarthy last fall, Democrats flocked to Johnson’s rescue, with all but 39 of them voting with Republicans to kill the effort to oust him. In addition to the seven who voted “present,” registering no position, 32 Democrats voted against blocking Greene’s motion.

And this time, Greene, who had supported McCarthy as speaker, found herself on a political island. Only 11 Republicans voted in favor of moving forward with a vote on ousting Johnson.

Greene’s move came roughly three weeks after Johnson pushed through a long-stalled $95 billion national security spending package to aid Israel, Ukraine and other U.S. allies over the objections of Greene and other rightwing Republicans who staunchly opposed sending additional aid to Ukraine.

But as she rose on the House floor to bring up her resolution declaring the speakership vacant, Greene appeared to be engaging in a mostly symbolic move. Only two other Republicans, Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona, had publicly said they would support the motion, and Democratic leaders had said their members would join an effort to kill any ouster attempt against Johnson.

“Given a choice between advancing Republican priorities or allying with Democrats to preserve his own personal power, Johnson regularly chooses to ally himself with Democrats,” Greene said.

She concluded with the official call for his removal: “Now, therefore be it resolved that the office of the speaker of the House of Representatives is hereby declared to be vacant.”

Lawmakers widely booed Greene as she called up the resolution and jeered several times as she read it aloud. As she recited the measure, a grievance-laden screed that lasted more than 10 minutes, Republicans lined up on the House floor to shake Johnson’s hand and pat him on the back.

It marked the second time in less than a year that Republicans have sought to depose their own speaker, coming about seven months after GOP rebels made McCarthy the only person in history to have been removed from the post.

And Greene had made clear that even if her attempt to depose Johnson were unsuccessful, she still saw value in publicly undermining him.

“If he remains speaker with” Democrats’ help, she recently wrote on social media, “he’s fully compromised.”