Marjorie Taylor Greene mocks Mike Johnson for 'nonstop complaining' and moaning about how 'tired' he is: Republican calls him a 'Democrat' Speaker who hasn't done enough to battle a DOJ that wants Trump to 'die in jail'
- The Georgia Republican sent the speaker off to a two-week Easter break with a threat to his job, filing a motion to vacate last month
- Greene seemed to suggest she'd use caution in calling the motion for a vote. 'I support the majority and I'm not going to be irresponsible with it'
A week away from Washington has not eased Rep.
Marjorie Taylor Greene's fury at Speaker
Mike Johnson.
The Republican firebrand is pushing back on his suggestion they are back on speaking terms after exchanging text messages over the weekend, and insists she is still wants to take the gavel away from him.
The Georgia lawmaker sent Johnson off to a two-week
Easter break with a threat to his job, filing a motion to vacate last month that could send the House back in to speakerless chaos.
Johnson claimed on
Fox News on Sunday that he and Greene had 'exchanged text messages' over the Easter weekend and had made plans to talk 'early next week.'
'Someone just told me that he had said he had talked to me over the break but we had very little communication,' Greene told DailyMail.com in an interview.
She went on: 'He had called on Thursday night before Good Friday and left a message. Basically, just saying how tired he was and how he was traveling through states fundraising and mainly that he was really wanting to talk to me. And so when I got that message, I just texted him back. You know, I don't want to talk to someone that's so tired and complaining nonstop.'
Greene launched her bid to potentially oust the speaker after a $1.2 trillion bill that funded six agencies of government. She did not make the resolution 'privileged,' meaning it will loom over Johnson's head and she has the ability to call it for a quick vote at any moment.
She said she is no closer to withdrawing her motion to vacate, deeming Johnson a 'Democrat speaker' who doesn't spend any time listening to his Republican conference.
'He cannot be Speaker of the House,' she said. 'He just can't be, I won't vote for him. Many other Republican members are saying the same thing. He's not our speaker. He's the Democrat speaker.'
But Greene seemed to suggest she'd use caution in calling the motion for a vote.
'I want the majority next [Congress]. I support the majority and I'm not going to be irresponsible with it,' she said. 'The more Mike Johnson does to serve the Biden administration and to go against the will of the American people is he's proving me right without me having to do anything.'
She, and other conservative hardliners, were frustrated by what they deemed a lack of conservative wins in a pair of packages that funded the government in 2024. It followed three continuing resolutions (CRs) which had punted the deadline down the road and extended funding at 2023 levels.
Hardliners wanted border security legislation attached to the spending deal - a demand which would have complicated its passage in the Democrat-led Senate and risked a government shutdown.
'Mike Johnson did nothing about the border,' said Greene.
'He funded the FBI and the Department of Justice gave the FBI a new building department, just full funding that is literally wanting to put Trump in jail for the rest of his life. It would die in jail if the Department of Justice had their way. Mike Johnson? Full funding.'
Johnson, meanwhile, on Fox News on Sunday suggested that Republicans are behind him.
'I think all of my other Republican colleagues recognize this [motion to vacate] as a distraction from our mission,' he said. 'We don't need any dissension right now.'
GOP leadership touted conservative wins in the latest spending package like a three percent increase in defense spending, retaining the Hyde amendment to ban federal money from being used for abortions and a ban on gas stove restrictions.
But rank-and-file conservatives have called out other provisions like the bill's $200 million for a new FBI headquarters and $300 million that goes toward the Ukrainian Assistance Initiative.
Johnson has been touting a 6 percent cut at the FBI, which he said had been 'really overreaching' and 'have been turned in some ways against the American people.'
Johnson said the spending package cuts 3 percent from the Justice Department and 7 percent from the ATF. 'And that's just a start,' Johnson said at the time. 'We have a lot more priorities and things that we need to advance.'
Greene harkened back to the days of Wisconsin Republican Paul Ryan, when the then-speaker tried to appease hardliners upset over funding increases and a lack of conservative policy wins with an increase in the defense budget.
'He not only repeated Paul Ryan, but it's worse, what he did was far worse,' Greene said. 'There's no daylight between [Johnson] and Nancy Pelosi.'
Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, like Johnson, often spoke about the perils of negotiating in divided government when hardliners came after him about negotiated deals. But Greene had a much closer relationship with the former speaker and even defended him against movements to oust him.
'He would never have asked any kind of government funding without getting border security wins,' Greene said, adding that unlawful immigrants were now 'squatting in people's houses' and 'raping children.'
'Under Kevin McCarthy, we had five families meetings, and that meant that all parts of our conference, we would go and hold meetings and his office and talk about everything,' Greene said, referring to the five factions of the Republicans conference that represent varying interests.
'We all had a voice with McCarthy. But once Mike Johnson became speaker, we stopped having five families meetings,' she said. 'The only meetings that are held are four corners, that is Mike Johnson meeting with Hakeem Jeffries, Chuck Schumer and Mitch McConnell.'
But Johnson seemingly can't win with his free-wheeling conference.
Others have suggested he spends too much time meeting with those of Greene's mind who might come for his job or threaten floor business if he does not appease their wishes, thus leaving the priorities of pragmatists by the wayside.
Johnson blamed the indomitable nature of his conference for giving Democrats leverage.
'Marjorie's a friend, she's very frustrated about, for example, the last appropriations bills. Guess what? So am I,' Johnson added on Fox.
'But with the smallest margin in U.S. history, we're sometimes going to get legislation that we don't like, and the Democrats know that when we don't all stand together with our razor-thin majority, then they have a better negotiation position, and that's why we got some of the things we didn't like.'
Greene, meanwhile, said blaming divided government and small margins was an 'excuse.'
'I've heard a lot of excuses,' she said. 'But I'll argue this: under President Bill Clinton, Republicans passed a balanced budget and they fought so hard to make that happen. Within a few years that literally led to over $4 billion paying down our deficit, if that was possible. If that was possible under a divided government, Speaker Johnson certainly could have at least done something about the border.'
Greene cast doubt on Johnson and the rest of House Republican leadership to hold onto the House in November.
'Will we win the majority? We might because Trump is on the ticket, but it's not because we've earned it,' she said.
'What Mike Johnson is doing is a message to Republican voters that they don't have anything to vote for in a future Republican party without Trump.'
