MTG prolongs Johnson speaker challenge as GOP grows weary of ‘nonsense

House Republicans are increasingly growing tired as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) continues to drag out her threats to strip Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) of his gavel unless he meets a handful of key demands.

Greene met with Johnson behind closed doors on Tuesday, the second such meeting in as many days, to discuss a path forward on her motion to vacate. During that meeting, Greene outlined several concessions she wanted to see from the speaker, claiming his response to those suggestions would determine whether a confidence vote would be called.

“Right now, the ball is in Mike Johnson’s court,” Greene told reporters on Tuesday. “He’s supposed to be reaching out to us hopefully soon.”

Greene initially filed her motion to vacate in late March, holding the measure over Johnson’s head as he looks to navigate his conference through votes on key legislation. Despite saying last week she would “absolutely” be putting the measure on the floor sometime this week for a vote, Greene has since stalled action, stoking frustration among some of her Republican colleagues who want to see the saga come to an end.

“I’m hopeful that this very boring syndicated television series that she’s engaged in is soon to be canceled,” Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-NY) said. “[Greene’s] theatrics, though, it’s a boring retread of silliness. And we all kind of hope that it’s coming to a close and we can focus on and continue to focus on things that are important.”

Other members predicted Greene’s efforts may not see a resolution, with one lawmaker telling the Washington Examiner a motion to vacate is likely to come at some point.

“If not this week, eventually. It’s a game to them,” the lawmaker said.

“Do we really have a conference?” the member added.

As part of their talks, Greene outlined several demands she wants to see from the speaker, including a vow not to approve more Ukraine aid and to defund Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, among other things.

However, some members have expressed hesitation with Johnson entertaining talks for a potential deal, noting it could only encourage future revolts.

“There is concern that if you reward bad behavior, you get more bad behavior,” one lawmaker said.

However, the member noted, there are varying opinions among the GOP conference on how Johnson should tread forward.

“I think a pretty good chunk of members would like the speaker to tell them to just shove it,” he said. “I think cooler heads probably understand that there’s a certain diplomacy required in moments such as this.”

“I don’t think it makes any sense to — at least it’s not good practice to establish separate arrangements to separate members,” another lawmaker said. “But if he’s talking about giving sleeves off his vest, that’s a different conversation, right? And if they want to engage in four or five, seven hours of meetings, that’s on them.”

A trigger for Greene came from House Democratic leadership releasing a statement stating that they would support Johnson and vote to table Greene’s motion to vacate. The Georgia Republican swiftly condemned Democrats’ “official endorsement” of Johnson, holding a press conference where she referred to Johnson as the Democrats’ speaker.

Some House Democrats have either stayed silent on the motion to vacate or met the situation with amusement. Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-MD) noted the “dysfunction” within the Republican conference but said the Democrats don’t want it to “undermine the business that the American people need to get done.”

“I appreciate the fact that Speaker Johnson did the right thing. You know, it looked like he had to kind of exhaust all their options before he chose that one. But, you know, all’s well that ends well,” Ivey said.

Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT), who had introduced a since-pulled measure to censure Greene last year, said she had no plans to bring up a new censure because she is “so disgusted with the amount of attention that woman gets.”

“And I don’t want to feed it,” Balint said.

“All she wants is attention. She’s got no policy agenda. She’s got no leadership. … She doesn’t have a group within her conference that really believes in her,” Balint said.

Despite Greene appearing to kick the can down the road, some Republican lawmakers have said the meetings may have some value.

Although he said a motion to vacate is likely to fail, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-TN) argued Johnson would not be holding such lengthy conversations if there wasn’t some sort of compromise to be made.

“He met with them for two hours; that’s some quality time. I daresay his family probably hadn’t gotten that in the last six months,” Burchett said. “It’s a wise move by Marjorie and Thomas [Massie] because if they don’t have the votes and they want to cause some change, they got four or five suggestions they want. If they get one, they win.”

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It’s unclear whether Greene will ultimately move forward with her motion to vacate, telling reporters it was up to Johnson to choose his own fate.

“That’s up to Mike Johnson, and it can’t drag out. These are things that have to be done,” Greene said. “It’s really simple. It’s up to Mike Johnson to be our Republican speaker. And we’ll see what he does.”