Bid to oust Speaker Johnson fails but GOP turmoil remains

The House voted overwhelmingly to set aside a motion by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to call a vote to remove Mike Johnson as speaker of the House. The vote was 359-43 with seven members voting present. 196 Republicans and 163 Democrats voted to table the motion.

"Hopefully, this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress," Johnson told reporters after the vote. "It's regrettable. It's not who we are as Americans and we're better than this — we need to get beyond it."

Only 10 Republicans voted alongside Greene.

As promised, House Democrats largely supported Johnson in setting aside the call for his removal, making Greene's endeavor symbolic.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Greene a "chaos agent" in remarks after the vote.

"The only thing we ask of our House Republican colleagues is for traditional Republicans to further isolate the extreme MAGA Republican wing of the GOP, which has visited nothing but chaos and dysfunction on the American people," he said.

The vote was the culmination of weeks of threats from the Georgia Republican.

While the measure failed, Greene and other Republicans remain angry with Johnson's reliance on votes from Democrats to pass major legislation.

"Mike Johnson worked with [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumer rather than the conference and gave Joe Biden and the Democrats everything they wanted — no different from how a Speaker Hakeem Jeffries would have done," Greene said on the floor, reading a litany of criticisms against Johnson.

"This is the uni-party for the American people watching," Greene said as the House chamber erupted into boos as she brought forward the motion to vacate.

How Greene got here

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