As House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Ga., gavels in the House on Tuesday after a two-week recess, he is facing a new internal threat from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who penned a scathing letter to her GOP colleagues making the case for his ouster.
House Republicans are accepting "complete and total surrender" under Johnson's leadership, according to Greene's five-page memo, which accused him of furthering Democrats' agenda rather than their own, The New York Times and CNN reported. The outlets reported either receiving a copy of the letter or having it shared with them.
Greene hit Johnson with a motion to vacate March 22, calling it a "warning shot." Tuesday's letter was a point-by-point takedown of Johnson, who has been on the job five months and is working with a historically narrow one-vote majority in the House.
Greene is unmoved.
"If these actions by the leader of our conference continue, then we are not a Republican Party — we are a uniparty that is hellbent on remaining on the path of self-inflicted destruction," she wrote, according to the two reports. "I will neither support nor take part in any of that, and neither will the people we represent."
Greene is unhappy that Johnson worked to pass the $1.2 trillion spending bills to keep the federal government open. But now, with Johnson signaling that he wants to bring an emergency aid package for Ukraine to the floor, he is approaching a red line with House conservatives who do not support foreign aid without first bolstering the southern border with tougher policy measures. Greene in the letter said she would "not tolerate" Johnson's push for Ukraine aid.
"Mike Johnson is publicly saying funding Ukraine is now his top priority when less than seven months ago he was against it," Greene wrote. "The American people disagree — they believe our border is the only border worth fighting a war over, and I agree with them."
Further, Greene implied Republicans could have somehow addressed the southern border during the appropriations process.
"Even with our razor-thin Republican majority, we could have at least secured the border, with it being the No. 1 issue in the country and being the issue that is causing Biden to lose in poll after poll," she wrote. "Nothing says shooting within our own tent like a Republican speaker of the House who makes his rank-and-file members vote to fund full-term abortion in order to pay our military soldiers."
In an interview with Newsmax last week, Johnson called Greene "a friend" who was frustrated — "and so am I." That was addressing her "warning shot" from March 22.
"She's a fierce advocate for our principles, and she'll be involved in this, but changing the speaker out doesn't change the dynamic," Johnson said. "It's about the numbers right now. That's the problem."
CNN and The Hill reported Greene and Johnson exchanged texts over recess and were supposed to talk Friday, though they never did.
"This has been a complete and total surrender to, if not complete and total lockstep with, the Democrats' agenda that has angered our Republican base so much and given them very little reason to vote for a Republican House majority," Greene wrote.
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
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