U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate Mike Johnson (R-LA) as Speaker of the House after he voted for the $1.2 trillion government funding bill. Greene also opposes sending more aid to Ukraine, which Johnson is reportedly considering.
Several House Republicans do not agree with Greene on either issue, but especially when it comes to ousting Johnson. Predictably, Johnson is among them, saying his ouster was cause “chaos in the House.” (Johnson, who replaced the vacated Kevin McCarthy as Speaker in October, has seen GOP conference chaos up close.)
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX) joins Johnson in seeing the peril in kicking the Speaker to the curb — and the challenges any Speaker who replaces him would have. In the video below, Nehls says: “It’s an impossible job. The Lord Jesus himself could not manage this conference. You just can’t do it.”
GOP pushback on MTG effort to oust Johnson.
“It’s an impossible job. The lord Jesus himself could not manage this conference. You just can’t do it,” Nehls said pic.twitter.com/f1FnKUvKsT
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) April 10, 2024
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who was one of the eight Republicans to instigate the ousting of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), said: “I think Mike Johnson is a great human. He doesn’t lie like the last guy.”
Rep. Tony Gonzales (R-TX) provided a colorful take on the state of the House by saying: “I think Speaker Johnson is working his guts out, doing the best he can with a lot of feral cats.”
NOTE: When not simply echoing Putin propaganda, much of MAGA’s ostensible objection to funding Ukraine aid — even as most of the funds (about $50 billion) would flow through American corporations supporting U.S. jobs in 30 states as Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testified this week — is the positioning by some Republicans conditioning Ukraine support on major changes at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Exemplifying the challenges Johnson faces in bringing his conference together, Nehls has suggested that he would not support an immigration bill that would “help Joe Biden’s approval rating” and added that “Congress doesn’t have to do anything to secure our southern border and fix it.” (At President Biden’s State of the Union address, Nehls wore a white t-shirt featuring former President Trump’s mugshot — he faces 88 criminal charges– with the words “Never Surrender!”)