Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a motion to vacate Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson just as the House voted to avoid a government shutdown on Friday.
I can’t wait to say how sick of this I am.
The motion was not filed as privileged, which would’ve forced a vote to remove the speaker within two legislative days of the filing. Rather, it was filed as a regular motion, which NBC News says could likely dissipate.
Johnson has been serving as speaker for five months. He took over for Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who was also ousted by a motion to vacate, which was filed by Rep. Matt Gaetz.
The common denominator? The Speakers facing vacation and the filers of the motions were all Republicans. But why are these Republican legislators going after one another?
It seems to me that the apparent schism that has formed in the Republican Party is the primary reason. The divide especially grew, and continues to grow, on account of former President Donald Trump, as well as congressional factions formed within the House.
Greene and Gaetz are part of a far-right, Trump-supporting faction of the Republican Party that has taken unprecedented measures to impose their views and openly defying their own party, all in the name of “courageously doing the people’s work,” according to the New York Times.
But all this faction has done is upend the legislative process and make a mockery of the Republican Party — definitely not the people’s work, if you ask me.
Even members of their own party have criticized them. Sen. Lindsey Graham described the faction as “populism gone awry,” and Sen. Mitt Romney said he no longer recognized the party after he announced he would not be seeking reelection.
It’s safe to say these far-right disruptors suck. I’m sorry for the lack of decorum, but that’s probably how these individuals greet their parents at Thanksgiving — did you see Greene heckling Biden at the State of the Union?
I would jump the way Biden did when she came up to him in her red blazer and “Make America Great Again” hat — we get it, you like Trump.
The worst part is that the faction’s methods have worked. With how evenly split the Democrats and Republicans are, it’s easy for this group of around 20 Republicans to send House proceedings into disarray. It’s dangerous.
When Gaetz helped lead the effort to delay the election of McCarthy to the speakership to 15 ballots, I thought the Republican Party as a whole looked weak.
I was angry about their hindrance in the policymaking process, but I was delighted at the apparent self-destruction of a party I’d come to associate so closely with “Trumpism.”
But today, I don’t see it that way. Yes, the party as a whole has weakened, but this faction has grown more powerful as their Trump-like behaviors continue to go without repercussions and their unprecedented actions continue to pay off.
Greene told Newsmax she doesn’t want to “throw our House into chaos” with her filing of the motion to vacate Johnson, and she told press that it was “more of a warning than a pink slip” to keep him in check.
But let’s be real: she has to know the chaos she’s creating. The reassurance that she’s just trying to keep the Speaker — who I thought was meant to oversee her — in check is not so reassuring.
The cannibalization of the Republican Party shows that Congress will be at the mercy of this far-right faction, which will continue to oust Speakers of the House who don’t meet their exact demands.
Who knows what they’ll do if their leader is elected president.
