In a rare show of bipartisanship on Capitol Hill, Democrats are now coming to the defense of Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and vowing — at least for now — to thwart threats to oust him from his role.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced Tuesday that his leadership team will reject a motion filed by GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene calling on Johnson to vacate the speaker's chair. Democrats said they would vote to table Greene's motion, essentially pausing it in its tracks.
"From the very beginning of this Congress, House Democrats have put people over politics and found bipartisan common ground with traditional Republicans in order to deliver real results," Democratic leaders said in a joint statement. "At the same time, House Democrats have aggressively pushed back against MAGA extremism. We will continue to do just that."
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In response to the announcement, Greene accused Johnson of making a "slimy back room deal" with Democrats and vowed to continue moving forward with her motion to vacate.
"If the Democrats want to elect him Speaker (and some Republicans want to support the Democrats’ chosen Speaker), I’ll give them the chance to do it," the Georgia Republican said in a post on X. "I’m a big believer in recorded votes because putting Congress on record allows every American to see the truth and provides transparency to our votes. Americans deserve to see the Uniparty on full display. I’m about to give them their coming out party!"
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Greene filed the motion to vacate over displeasure with Johnson for bringing what she called "Democrat-controlled" spending bills to the House floor that included additional foreign aid for Ukraine. Had the motion been introduced on the House floor, Republicans could have found themselves in a similar situation they were in last year when they voted to remove Rep. Kevin McCarthy as House speaker.
However, while Democrats have vowed to table Greene's motion to vacate, Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus Rep. Pete Aguilar hinted that the threat against Speaker Johnson's job is still in Democrats' hands.
"The underlying motion to vacate was not discussed," he said. "The motion to table was."
