Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia said on Wednesday that she would demand a vote next week on a motion to remove Speaker Mike Johnson, moving forward in the face of all but certain defeat with the second attempt during this Congress to depose a Republican speaker.
In a morning news conference at the Capitol, Ms. Greene excoriated Mr. Johnson for working with Democrats to push through major legislation and said it was time for lawmakers to go on the record about where they stood on his speakership.
“I think every member of Congress needs to take that vote and let the chips fall where they may,” Ms. Greene said. “And so next week, I am going to be calling this motion to vacate.”
The move comes just over a week after Mr. Johnson pushed through a long-stalled $95 billion national security spending package to aid Israel, Ukraine and other U.S. allies over the objections of Ms. Greene and other right-wing Republicans who staunchly opposed sending additional aid to Kyiv.
And it came one day after House Democratic leaders said they would vote to block the effort to remove Mr. Johnson, which would give Republicans more than enough backing to kill Ms. Greene’s motion before it could be considered.
Ms. Greene’s effort has struggled to gain momentum in the month and a half since she filed the motion to vacate the speaker’s chair, saying it was a warning shot to Mr. Johnson. Only two other Republicans, Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Paul Gosar of Arizona, have publicly backed the move so far, though Ms. Greene and Mr. Massie said on Wednesday that they had privately heard support from more colleagues.
In a hastily issued statement, Mr. Johnson condemned the move.
“This motion is wrong for the Republican conference, wrong for the institution and wrong for the country,” the speaker said.
He has said the effort is misguided and would not drive his decisions as speaker.
“I don’t spend a lot of time concerning myself with it, and I think it’s a distraction,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview on Sunday. “We have a job to do here. And I think that the vast majority of my colleagues understand that as well. And I don’t think that a dispute over policy issues or questions should result in the speaker being removed.”
