House conservatives are warily watching their Democratic counterparts after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., led a statement promising to protect Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from a GOP-led ouster threat.<\/p>\n
\u2018Some people are wondering if this isn\u2019t like a psy-op, where the Dems are saying we\u2019re going to publicly support you because they want, at the end of the day, for him to be vacated?\u2019 Rep. Eric Burlison, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
House Democratic leaders released a joint statement on Tuesday declaring they would block a House-wide vote on ousting Johnson by voting to table the measure, known as a motion to vacate the chair. It\u2019s a procedural hurdle that takes place before the main vote which, if successful, would block the House from voting on the motion itself.<\/p>\n
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., is leading GOP rebel threats to trigger a vote on removing Johnson from House leadership in protest of his bipartisan efforts on government funding and foreign aid.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Several more lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital wondered aloud whether Democrats\u2019 announcement was a ploy to goad Greene into forcing the vote.<\/p>\n
\u2018In some ways, it\u2019s almost like they\u2019re just trying to push her to do it, and I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s the best thing,\u2019 Rep. Barry Moore, R-Ala., said.<\/p>\n
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said when asked if Democrats were trying to goad Greene, \u2018That\u2019s what I\u2019ve heard. That\u2019s the rumor on the Hill, that\u2019s what it\u2019s about.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018I mean it\u2019s just strange. What role do they play? Why?\u2026They didn\u2019t come for [former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.] but they\u2019re coming to keep [Johnson]? They\u2019re going to have to answer for that,\u2019 Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., told reporters, referencing the fact that all House Democrats voted to oust McCarthy in October.<\/p>\n
Both Mace and Norman also pointed out they themselves were against ousting Johnson.<\/p>\n
Since Greene filed the resolution nearly 40 days ago, it has earned two co-sponsors in Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., after the House passed a $61 billion aid package for Ukraine this month. But for the most part, it has fallen flat within the GOP.<\/p>\n
Even Johnson\u2019s critics in the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus have distanced themselves from the push to oust Johnson, signaling little appetite for the three weeks of chaos that followed the ouster of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., last fall.<\/p>\n
Greene would have to declare her resolution as \u2018privileged\u2019 on the House floor to force leaders to take it up within two legislative days, though she has not yet indicated what she\u2019ll do.<\/p>\n
She and Massie are holding a press conference responding to House Democrats\u2019 announcement on Wednesday morning.<\/p>\n
Jeffries said in the joint statement with House Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., \u2018From 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. At the same time, House Democrats have aggressively pushed back against MAGA extremism. We will continue to do just that.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018At 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\u2019s Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed,\u2019 they said.<\/p>\n
The announcement came during Johnson\u2019s regular weekly press conference and seemingly caught the speaker unaware.<\/p>\n
\u2018First I\u2019ve heard of it,\u2019 he said when asked by a reporter. \u2018Look, I have to do my job. We have to do what we believe to be the right thing. What the country needs right now is a functioning Congress.\u2019<\/p>\n
Greene posted on X in response to Democrats\u2019 statement, \u2018Every day, 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. Here is their official endorsement of his Speakership. What slimy back room deal did Johnson make for the Democrats\u2019 support?\u2019<\/p>\n
Fox News Digital reached out to Greene and Jeffries\u2019 offices for comment.<\/p>\n\n
House conservatives are warily watching their Democratic counterparts after House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., led a statement promising to protect Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., from a GOP-led ouster threat. \u2018Some people are wondering if this isn\u2019t like a psy-op, where the Dems are saying we\u2019re going to publicly support you because they want, at <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":18598,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18597","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}