Johnson survives Greene’s ouster attempt as Democrats join GOP to kill it

WASHINGTON — Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday easily batted down an attempt by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia to oust him from his post, after Democrats linked arms with most Republicans to fend off a second attempt by GOP hard-liners to strip the gavel from their party leader.

The vote to kill the effort was an overwhelming 359-43, with seven Democrats voting “present.”

Democrats flocked to Johnson’s rescue, with all but 39 of them voting with Republicans to block the effort to oust him. In addition to the seven who voted “present,” registering no position, 32 Democrats voted against thwarting Greene’s motion.

The Democratic support made the critical difference, allowing Johnson to avoid the kind of messy showdown on the floor that led to the historic ouster of Kevin McCarthy last fall. While for weeks Greene had appeared to be on a political island in her drive to jettison yet another GOP speaker, 11 Republicans ultimately voted against blocking her motion.

That was the same number of Republicans that voted against killing the motion to remove McCarthy in October, but with Democrats joining them en masse at the time, the ouster effort survived and in a separate vote, he became the first speaker ever to be deposed.

“I appreciate the show of confidence from my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort,” Johnson told reporters shortly after Wednesday’s vote. “As I’ve said from the beginning and I’ve made clear here every day, I intend to do my job. I intend to do what I believe to be the right thing, which is what I was elected to do, and I’ll let the chips fall where they may. In my view, that is leadership.”

“Hopefully,” he added, “this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress.”

Lawmakers loudly booed Greene as she called up the resolution and jeered several times as she read it aloud. As she recited the measure, a grievance-laden screed that lasted more than 10 minutes, Republicans lined up on the House floor to shake Johnson’s hand and pat him on the back.

Greene had made clear that even if her attempt to depose Johnson were unsuccessful, she still saw value in publicly undermining him.