CNN
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GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia issued a searing indictment of Home Speaker Mike Johnson’s management in a brand new letter despatched to her Republican colleagues on Tuesday, based on a duplicate shared with CNN, in a big escalation of her rhetoric as she tries to construct assist for probably ousting Johnson.
Whereas Greene doesn’t point out if or when she plans to power a flooring vote on Johnson’s elimination, the scathing rebuke marks her first direct pitch to the Home GOP convention to affix her push and signifies she will not be backing down from her menace as lawmakers return to Washington following a two-week recess.
For his half, Johnson has tried to downplay the menace and tried to ease tensions. “I respect Marjorie. She is going to at all times have an open door to the speaker’s workplace. We do have trustworthy variations on technique generally however share the identical conservative beliefs,” the Louisiana Republican told CNN in a statement last week.
Whereas the pair had mentioned they’d join final week, it didn’t occur, a supply acquainted advised CNN.
CNN has reached out to Johnson’s workplace for remark.
Within the letter, Greene laid out an in depth case in opposition to the speaker, accusing Johnson of failing to ship on guarantees he ran on and breaking legislative procedural guidelines. She even blamed him for jeopardizing the Home Republican majority by not doing extra to forestall some retiring GOP members from leaving Congress early.
“Mike Johnson has sadly not lived as much as a single one in every of his self-imposed tenets,” Greene wrote.
“He’s throwing our personal razor-thin majority into chaos by not serving his personal GOP convention that elected him,” she added.
Whereas serving as speaker, Johnson has confronted a lot of constraints on account of the historically narrow Home majority he presides over and has needed to cope with a Democratic-controlled Senate and White Home, leaving him little room to maneuver.
In a pointy warning, Greene additionally claimed she would “not tolerate” Johnson’s anticipated upcoming push to supply extra help to Ukraine, one thing he had voted in opposition to earlier than he turned speaker, and push for reauthorization of a legislation that allows warrantless surveillance of overseas nationals.
Greene has not mentioned how a lot assist she has, however with upcoming resignations scheduled to present Home Republicans their narrowest majority but — only a one-vote benefit — there isn’t any margin for error, significantly in a Congress the place any single lawmaker can power a vote looking for his ouster and the place governing has proved to be near-impossible at occasions. Various Home Republicans have voiced frustrations with Johnson, together with GOP Reps. Thomas Massie, Chip Roy and Warren Davidson, however none have echoed Greene’s official name to take away the speaker.
On the similar time, a big variety of Home Republicans don’t need to see Johnson faraway from the speakership and worry a return to the chaos that engulfed the Home GOP convention for weeks after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted in an unprecedented vote final yr.
Johnson has cautioned that triggering a vote over the gavel wouldn’t be in the very best curiosity of Home Republicans or efforts to broaden their majority, saying in his assertion to CNN final week, “a shutdown wouldn’t serve our get together or help us in our mission of saving the republic by rising our majority, nor will one other movement to vacate.”
Sending the letter on the day the Home returns from a two-week recess escalates the warning that has been looming over Johnson since Greene filed the movement to unseat him and provides gas to the inter-party divisions which have grown more and more contentious since Johnson took over the speaker’s gavel final yr following McCarthy’s ouster.
Greene ticked via a lot of grievances she has with the Louisiana Republican and argued that Johnson has damage the possibilities of Republicans holding onto the Home majority in November.
“This has been a whole and complete give up to, if not full and complete lockstep with, the Democrats’ agenda that has angered our Republican base a lot and given them little or no cause to vote for a Republican Home majority” Greene wrote. “As a matter of reality, if we win the Home this fall, it would solely be as a result of President Trump is on the poll, not as a result of we’ve earned it.”
As is stands, Greene’s movement to oust Johnson stays a symbolic menace because the clock to power an precise vote has not been began. Shortly after she filed the movement, Greene was swarmed by her colleagues who need to keep away from one other dysfunctional course of that created a management vacuum final yr and introduced Home flooring motion to a standstill for weeks.
A part of the argument to attempt to dissuade Greene from transferring ahead with the method, based on sources, is that ousting Johnson would solely ship Democrats the Home majority.
Greene dismissed that argument in her letter to her colleagues on Tuesday.
“And no, electing a brand new Republican Speaker won’t give the bulk to the Democrats. That solely occurs if extra Republicans retire early, or Republicans truly vote for Hakeem Jeffries. It’s not sophisticated, it’s simple arithmetic” she wrote.