Johnson easily survives ouster attempt
Speaker coasts, 359-43, backed by Democrats
waSHington — Speaker mike Johnson on wednesday easily batted down an attempt by Representative 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 voting “present.” Democrats flocked to Johnson’s rescue, with all but 39 of them voting with Republicans to block the effort to oust him.
members of the minority party in the House have never propped up the other party’s speaker, and when the last Republican to hold the post, Kevin mcCarthy, faced a removal vote last fall, Democrats voted en masse to allow the motion to move forward and then to jettison him, helping lead to his historic ouster.
this time, the Democratic support made the critical difference, allowing Johnson, who has a minuscule majority, to avoid a removal vote altogether. while for weeks greene had appeared to be on a political island in her drive to get rid of yet another goP speaker, 11 Republicans ultimately voted to allow her motion to move forward.
that was the same number of Republicans who voted in october to allow the bid to remove mcCarthy to advance — but back then, they were joined by every Democrat.
“i appreciate the show of confidence from my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort,” Johnson said after the vote. “as i’ve said from the beginning and i’ve made clear here every day, i intend to do my job. i intend to do what i believe to be the right thing, which is what i was elected to do, and i’ll let the chips fall where they may. in my view, that is leadership. Hopefully, this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress.”
the lopsided vote solidified the dynamic that has defined Johnson’s speakership, like mcCarthy’s before him. each time the Republican leader has been faced with a critical task, such as averting a government shutdown or a catastrophic default on the nation’s debt, he has relied on a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers to provide the votes to accomplish it.
the result has been the empowerment of Democrats at the expense of the hard right, the very phenomenon that greene raged against as she rose on the House floor wednesday to lay out a scathing case against Johnson and what she called the “uniparty” he empowered.
“our decision to stop marjorie taylor greene from plunging the House of Representatives and the country into further chaos is rooted in our commitment to solve problems for everyday americans in a bipartisan manner,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries of new York, the Democratic leader, told reporters shortly after the vote.
greene’s move to oust Johnson came roughly three weeks after the speaker pushed through a long-stalled $95 billion national security spending package to aid israel, Ukraine, and other US allies over the objections of greene and other Republicans who staunchly opposed sending aid to Ukraine.
lawmakers loudly jeered greene as she called up the resolution and read it aloud. as she recited the measure, Republicans lined up on the House floor to shake Johnson’s hand and pat him on the back.
“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, reading from her resolution.
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.”