WASHINGTON – Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie left a meeting with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday, saying the “ball is in his court” on whether to hold a vote, to remove him from the leadership.
Greene filed the so-called eviction petition end of March and has since used it as leverage to get Johnson to move further to the right and not submit certain bills to the House of Representatives for a vote.
Last week, Greene said She would call for a vote this week to expel Johnson from the speaker’s office, but after that meet She was with him for two hours on Monday and 90 minutes on Tuesday and said it was up to him whether she called for a vote in the plenary session.
“It’s really simple. It’s up to Mike Johnson to be our Republican speaker,” Greene said. “And we’ll see what he does. And again for me it’s actions. I don’t care what words he says.”
Greene declined to say the deadline by which Johnson must comply with her four proposed amendments, but noted that it was “quite short.” She declined to say whether there would be further meetings with the speaker.
Massie said Johnson should not extend approval of his and Greene’s four proposals.
“If it becomes obvious that he just wants to drag things out, we’ll do him a favor, we’ll do you a favor, we’ll do the Republicans a favor and we’ll withdraw this motion,” Massie said.
Any vote to remove Johnson is likely to fail, as Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives announced Last month they voted to keep him as speaker.
Four demands on the speaker
Greene said before the meeting on Steve Bannon’s livestreamed show that she had four requirements that Johnson would have to meet if he wanted her to rescind the resignation request.
He must:
- Agree not to hold votes on additional aid to Ukraine as part of its ongoing fight against the Russian invasion;
- Agree not to hold votes on bills that do not have the support of a majority of the 217 Republicans in the chamber;
- Defund the Justice Department’s special counsel; And
- Agree to a 1% spending cut if Congress does not approve all dozen of the annual government funding measures before the Oct. 1 deadline.
Efforts to defund the special counsel investigating former President Donald Trump and proposals to force automatic spending cuts are highly unlikely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate or win approval from President Joe Biden .
Greene said on Bannon’s show that she was not prepared to negotiate with Johnson on these issues.
“I have high expectations and they must be fully met,” Greene said. “There is no middle ground. There is no compromise.”
Following the meeting, Johnson said he was working on some of Greene’s ideas and suggestions.
“It’s part of the process here,” the Louisiana Republican said. “I’m optimistic that we can come to some solutions to all of this.”
He didn’t go into details, but said, “They were very productive conversations.”
