By David Morgan and Makini Brice
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday swiftly defeated an effort by firebrand Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene to remove fellow Republican Speaker Mike Johnson from his leadership role.
Democrats joined Republicans in a 359-43 vote to protect Johnson’s speakership, in a bid to avoid a replay of the chaos that occurred in October when Republicans ousted his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.
Greene’s move represented a rare Republican defiance of presidential candidate Donald Trump, who in a social media post on Wednesday said it was “not the time” for Republicans to try to push out their own speaker.
“I appreciate the show of confidence from my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort,” Johnson said following the vote. “Hopefully this is the end of the character assassination that has characterized the current Congress.”
Earlier, standing flanked by fellow Republican Thomas Massie, Greene criticized Johnson for a string of compromises with Democrats, who hold a majority in the Senate.
“Excuses like ‘this is just how you have to govern in divided government’ are pathetic, weak and unacceptable,” Greene said of Johnson. “Even with our razor-thin Republican majority we could have at least secured the border.”
But the chamber erupted in taunts and cheers at points as Greene read her resolution, with Democrats at times chanting “Hakeem, Hakeem,” a reference to their party leader Hakeem Jeffries, in an echo of the many times they voted for him as speaker during Republicans’ multiple rounds of voting for speaker since the current House was seated in January 2021.
Johnson has angered many hardliners within his thin 217-213 Republican majority this year, by enacting bipartisan spending measures to avoid government shutdowns and aid U.S. allies including Ukraine, without insisting on strict security measures for the U.S.-Mexico border that Democrats reject.
Johnson could be seen walking around the House floor after Greene began her call on Wednesday for his ouster, with Republican supporters shaking his hand and patting him on the back.
“Republicans have to be fighting the Radical Left Democrats, and all the Damage they have done to our Country,” Trump said in his Wednesday post. “We’re not in a position of voting on a Motion to Vacate. At some point, we may very well be, but this is not the time.”
The situation has bolstered Jeffries, who agreed to save Johnson from ouster after freeing Congress from the road block of Republican infighting by delivering crucial Democratic support for must-pass bills.
(Reporting by David Morgan, Makini Brice and Richard Cowan in WashingtonEditing by Scott Malone, Chris Sanders and Matthew Lewis)
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