Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on Friday formally filed a motion to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., due to his support of the $1.2 trillion spending bill.
Greene filed a motion to vacate the chair, the same procedure used by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., in October to remove then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, from his position.
"We need a Speaker of the House who will fight to secure America's border at all cost! Not one that passes a trillion dollar Democrat wish list that continues the border invasion, funds the weaponized government, and breaks our own conference rules," Greene wrote in a Thursday night post on X. "I'm done with this one."
Greene then filed her motion on Friday.
"BREAKING: MTG has just filed a motion to vacate Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House. Conservatives are raging against the $1.2 trillion spending bill. Speaker Johnson took over the gavel in October after a three week battle and has been working with a mere two vote majority," Turning Point USA founder and CEO Charlie Kirk posted on X.
Punchbowl News' Jake Sherman, who also reported that Greene filed a motion to vacate, added procedural information on X.
"Remember on motion to vacate: MTG has to go to a mic and call up the resolution. Then the leadership can delay the vote for two legislative days. That would put this until after recess, two+ weeks from now," Sherman posted on X.
NBC News' Marianna Sotomayor also reported on X that Greene's resolution won't be brought up for a vote until after the recess.
"There's no timeline, but the clock has started," Greene told reporters after filing her motion. "I don't have a timeline. That will be a rolling issue that we'll be judging and making decisions by. Not going to say it will be six weeks, or two months. There will be internal discussions and meeting that allows other people to step forward to run for speaker.
"We need a speaker that supports all of us Republicans, not a speaker that relies on Democrats to get bills through. Not a speaker that breaks the 72-hour rule. Not a speaker that won't let them vote on amendments."
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Democrat-majority Senate scrambled Friday to pass a $1.2 trillion spending bill that would keep the government funded through September and beat a midnight government shutdown deadline.
The House voted 286-134 Friday to pass the funding bill and send it to the Senate just hours before the shutdown deadline.
McCarthy was voted out of the speakership in an extraordinary showdown, a first in U.S. history that was forced by a contingent of hard-right conservatives and threw the House and its Republican leadership into chaos.
Gaetz forced the vote on the "motion to vacate," drawing together more than a handful of conservative Republican critics of the speaker and many Democrats who say he is unworthy of leadership.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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