Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bid to unseat Chairman Johnson highlights GOP divisions and lack of unity: US: Business Times

On May 3, 2024By Vaseline

As Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) prepares to force a vote on her motion to remove Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) from the House of Representatives, internal divisions within the Republican Party are came into sharp focus. . Despite the near-universal consensus among lawmakers that allowing a single member to trigger a snap vote on removing the chairman is a recipe for chaos, both sides acknowledge there is little chance of passing the rule before January to change.

Speaker Johnson finds himself in a precarious position, unable to change the rules with Republican votes alone due to opposition from rebels on his right flank, who insisted that former Speaker Kevin McCarthy give them more power by allowing one lawmaker. to force a vote of no confidence. At the same time, while Democrats are willing to save Johnson from Greene’s first impeachment attempt next week, they have made clear that their support is not guaranteed if Greene or another disgruntled member tries again.

“I don’t know how you put that genie back in the box,” Rep. David Joyce (R-Ohio) said of reforming the motion to vacate the speakership this year, a change he supports.

The situation leaves Johnson virtually powerless to officially neutralize one of the main threats to his leadership, even as he has criticized the low threshold for voting on removing a speaker for “destroying this office and the majority has harmed”. It also paves the way for more disgruntled colleagues who want to force a confrontation with him in the coming months.

Moreover, most Republicans doubt that Johnson or the Democrats have much to gain from fighting over changing the rule. With just over six months to go until the next round of leadership elections, a growing number of Republicans are already predicting that Johnson would not secure the top spot again if he runs. Attempting to protect the speakership from its disgruntled hardliners only invites more of them to lash out, further complicating the speaker’s future path to remaining in leadership.

“There would be too much pushback” if Johnson tried to raise the threshold to force a referendum on him, Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) said, advising Republicans to focus on issues like the border rather than on the “distraction” of a fight to change rules until Election Day.

The internal backlash over a possible change to the rules for ousting speakers has already hit Johnson, with some conservatives, such as Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), preemptively threatening to side with Greene to choose. in favor of firing him if he pursues such a change.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats plan to make it harder to remove a speaker if they regain control of the House of Representatives in January. Until then, they believe the onus is on Republicans to come up with an offer to solve a problem they created. Moreover, Democrats recognize the political reality that more chaos from the Republican Party can only benefit them during the campaign.

“I’m not a cheap date. … Our job is not to bail out Republicans every time they try to overthrow their chairman,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), emphasizing that making deals would be a matter of doing it. necessary for several Johnson rescue votes.

Many progressives are also reluctant to support Johnson, whose conservatism makes him the party’s natural ideological enemy. Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) said changing the rules for impeaching a speaker would be “another step to help Mike Johnson, who supported election overturns and has been an advocate for crazy right-wing ideas in the country. “

Despite the challenges, Republicans have increasingly floated the idea of a rule change in private meetings, including with Johnson. The speaker acknowledged in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, last month that he had been encouraged to support a higher threshold for the motion but that the idea did not have a “majority of the full House.”

With the threat of Greene looming, rank-and-file members, rather than party leaders, will likely draft any possible rule-change proposal to help Johnson distance himself from the horse-trading involved. However, many of Johnson’s allies acknowledge that if Democrats make too many demands, it will likely close the door to changing the rules until January.