Democrats vow to block Marjorie Taylor Greene effort to remove House speaker

Democratic leaders in the US House of Representatives vowed that the Georgia extremist Marjorie Taylor Greene “will not succeed” if she triggers an attempt to remove the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, from his role.

In response, Greene promised to press on in her quest to show Johnson the door.

Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the Democratic minority leader, made his position clear on Tuesday in a statement with other party leaders that cited Johnson’s recent success in passing aid to Ukraine and other US allies despite opposition from the far right of Republican ranks.

“From the very beginning of this Congress,” they said, “House Democrats have put people over politics and found bipartisan common ground with traditional Republicans in order to deliver real results. At the same time, House Democrats have aggressively pushed back against Maga [pro-Trump] extremism. We will continue to do just that.

“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 Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate the chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed.”

Greene filed her motion to vacate, the mechanism by which a speaker can be removed, last month, after Johnson relied on Democratic votes to pass government funding.

Since then, the Louisiana rightwinger has overseen passage of foreign aid and the extension of federal surveillance powers and taken other steps to which far-right Republicans object.

Johnson retains support from Donald Trump but Greene, an ardent Trump ally who has floated herself to be his running mate, has vowed to press ahead.

She wants to subject Johnson to the same fate as his predecessor, Kevin