Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she never promised further votes to oust Speaker Mike Johnson from his leadership post if lawmakers tabled her motion to vacate the chair.
Ms. Taylor Greene, Georgia Republican, standing next to Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, told reporters this when asked whether she planned additional motions to vacate the chair until she was successful.
“That’s not something that I’ve said. I think today has proven the uni-party is alive and well and the Democrats now control Speaker Johnson,” she said after the House voted to kill her motion on a 359-43 vote.
“That was something that everybody’s suspected all along,” she added. Democrats “just voted to save him. And I think that’s the message that is being told.”
Mr. Massie, who supported Ms. Greene‘s effort, previously told reporters that he did not see a need to try to vacate the chair again if their effort failed.
But he reserved the option to try again if Mr. Johnson supported other issues he found appalling, such as resettling refugees from the Middle East in the U.S. or pushing an omnibus spending package.
Former President Donald Trump weighed in Wednesday night on the attempt to oust Mr. Johnson, saying that Ms. Greene has “spirit” and “fight” and that he “absolutely loves” her. But he said Republicans must fight the “Radical Left” and are “not in a position of voting on a Motion to Vacate.”
He added, “At some point, we may very well be, but this is not the time.”
The former president called Mr. Johnson a good man who is “trying very hard” and said Republicans should vote to table Ms. Greene‘s motion.
Ms. Greene said she was thankful for Mr. Trump’s support.
“I support him. But he also said in that statement that we may have to vacate,” she said.
“I’ve talked to him every day about” the motion to vacate, she said. “You know something? You know what President Trump needs? He needs Republican members that will fight for him.”
Ms. Greene and Mr. Massie met with Mr. Johnson over the last two days to discuss ways to avoid this vote.
The first demand being that they wanted bills brought to the floor that are supported by the majority of the majority. The second demand was no more funding for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
The third demand was Mr. Massie‘s plan for a 1% budget cut to be included in the next stop-gap budget measure to fund the government. The final demand was to defund the prosecutions against Mr. Trump.
Ms. Greene said that Mr. Johnson told both of them it would be too much of a heavy lift to meet their demands, and Mr. Massie told reporters that the speaker dragged his feet.
“He asked for a day and we gave him a day and he asked for another day and we gave him another day. And he didn’t come out and endorse those four ideas,” Mr. Massie said. “He was always working on it and always had another question. And at some point, we felt that he was just dragging this out.”
In the final vote, 163 Democrats voted not to take the speaker’s gavel from Mr. Johnson. Ten Republicans voted with Ms. Greene to oust Mr. Johnson.
After the vote, Mr. Johnson called the motion “misguided.”
He said he appreciated the show of confidence from the 196 Republicans, the vast majority of the conference, who voted to table the motion.
“Hopefully, this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined 118th Congress,” Mr. Johnson said. “It’s regrettable. It’s not who we are as Americans. We’re better than that.”
• Susan Ferrechio and Alex Miller contributed to this report.