Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is not ruling out voting for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) to stay in the position, despite previously making a move to oust him.
Asked Tuesday outside the Capitol whether she would support Johnson in Wednesday’s internal leadership elections and on the House floor, Greene said: “Well, I think he’s the only one running for Speaker, so I don’t understand everybody asking this question.”
Greene had sharply criticized Johnson for ushering through a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine and for reauthorizing warrantless foreign spying powers. In May, she led a move to try to force a vote to oust Johnson from his position — but House Democrats helped Republicans kill the effort by voting to table the matter.
But for Greene — a staunch supporter of President-Elect Trump — the coming Republican trifecta with control of the House, Senate, and White House appears to have changed her calculus.
“The American people overwhelmingly voted for President Trump’s agenda, not anyone else’s agenda, President Trump’s agenda, MAGA agenda, America First agenda. And I think that’s a mandate from the American people,” Greene said. “So, I think whoever’s in charge here in the House, their job is to pass President Trump’s agenda.”
The Hill pressed Greene on her comments, noting that it sounds like she is not ruling out voting for Johnson on the House floor despite being critical of him.
“What I’ve been critical of is passing the Biden Harris agenda in the house that’s funding, fully funding, an agenda that [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer [D-N.Y.] loved so much he passed it right through the Senate, reauthorizing FISA and warrantless spying on Americans and giving $60 billion to Ukraine,” Greene said. “But I really don’t think that’ll happen under President Trump. I’m sure he will never allow that, and neither will the American people.”
Johnson, like Greene, also has a good relationship with Trump. He is pitching the importance of continuity of leadership as Republicans plot an ambitious legislative agenda under Trump, with economic and tax issues taking the forefront.
Other hardline conservatives in the House GOP are planning to nominate a last-minute alternative challenger to Speaker Johnson in leadership elections on Wednesday, sources tell The Hill, but that they have not decided who that nominee will be.
While Johnson is expected to easily win the internal nomination, the challenge could foreshadow difficulties for Johnson in securing the gavel on the House floor on Jan. 3, when Johnson will need near-unanimity in the slim GOP majority.
Greene, though, brushed off the prospect of a challenge.
“I have seen no serious effort, have you? Do you know of one? I know I haven’t gotten a single phone call,” Greene said. “These questions are meant to divide Republicans for tomorrow on the vote. And I’m not interested in that … I support President Trump unapologetically, and I’ll be a House member working very hard to get his agenda passed.”
