The House Democratic Leadership has issued a joint statement Tuesday that they would oppose any effort by ultra-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson.
And the move demonstrates once again why House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries has proven to be a worthy successor to Speaker-emeritus Nancy Pelosi. He has been able to keep the House Democratic caucus unified and exposed the inability of the GOP majority to govern.
Hopefully, Jeffries, a New York Democrat, will become Speaker in January, or even earlier if more Republicans decide to resign early as former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Ken Buck of Colorado, and Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin have already done.
Here is the statement that was also signed by Whip Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar of California. The statement was issued after a meeting of the House Democratic Caucus.
In the statement, the House Democratic Leadership sharply criticized House Republicans, saying the GOP caucus had “irresponsibly delayed critical security assistance to our democratic allies in Ukraine, Israel and the Indo-Pacific.” They also said the GOP had simultaneously blocked humanitarian assistance to civilians “in harm’s way” in places like Gaza, Haiti and the Sudan.
Their statement did not mention former President Donald Trump by name, but the presumptive Republican presidential nominee played a big role in persuading House Republicans, including Johnson, to delay the vote on Ukraine aid. The delay resulted in Ukrainian forces running low on ammunition, enabling Russian forces to advance along the front lines.
But finally the aid package was approved by the House on April 20. Biden signed the bill last Wednesday after the Senate overwhelmingly approved the bills passed by the House
“Thanks to a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans, led by President Biden, we were finally able to meet the national security needs of the American people,” they wrote,
Jeffries and his colleagues observed that House Democrats {have put people over politics and found bipartisan common ground with traditional Republicans in order to deliver real results”
But at the same time, they said House Democrats “have aggressively pushed back against MAGA extremism” and will continue to do so.
And that is why Jeffries and his fellow Democratic leaders declared:
At this moment, upon completion of our national security work, the time has come to turn the page on this chapter of Pro-Putin Republican obstruction. We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed.
By tabling the motion, Democrats would avoid a direct vote on whether to keep or remove Johnson as Speaker.
Greene vowed to push ahead on her fool’s mission to oust Johnson. In an angry post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Greene ranted:
Everyday, I fight the Democrat agenda destroying America and I fight for an America First Republican agenda. Mike Johnson is officially the Democrat Speaker of the House. … What slimy back room deal did Johnson make for the Democrats’ support? He should resign, switch parties, and continue voting for Biden’s open border invasion of America, endless wars, full term abortion on demand, trans agenda on children, warrantless spying on the American people, weaponizing government against President Trump and his supporters, and every other Democrat wishlist item he’s handed over.
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. ,,, Americans deserve to see the Uniparty on full display. I’m about to give them their coming out party!
Just two ultra-right Republicans had signed on to Greene’s motion to vacate the Speakership: Reps. Paul Gosar of Arizona and Thomas Massie Of Kentucky.
And Greene is completely unhinged in her description of Moses Mike, whom socially conservative evangelicals in the House GOP caucus consider to be the chosen one.
And even Trump threw his support behind Johnson in a radio interview with a conservative commentator last week after the House vote on aid for Ukraine.
“Well, look, we have a majority of one, OK?” Trump said. “It's not like he can go and do whatever he wants to do. I think he's a very good person. … I think he's trying very hard.”
For Jeffries, it’s a shrewd shift in tactics from last October when 208 Democrats joined eight right-wing House Republicans led by Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida in voting to remove McCarthy as Speaker. That led to weeks of chaos before the GOP caucus finally chose Johnson, a backbencher from Louisiana, as their Speaker. Greene voted to retain McCarthy in his post.
Back then, the House Democratic leadership urged their caucus to vote “yes” on the motion to vacate.
At the time, Jeffries wrote:
"Given their unwillingness to break from MAGA extremism in an authentic and comprehensive manner, House Democratic leadership will vote yes on the pending Republican Motion to Vacate the Chair."
Back then, Democrats considered McCarthy to be untrustworthy. They were particularly upset when McCarthy in a CBS interview accused Democrats of wanting to force a government shutdown after relying on their help to fund the government, Axios wrote.
But this time, Johnson gained some credit among Democrats for finally coming around to support the Ukraine aid package despite Greene’s threats to oust him if the measure was approved.
Pelosi even told Axios that Johnson had been "courageous" in standing up to the "anti-government" wing of his conference,