Mike Johnson survives attempt to oust him as US House Speaker

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Mike Johnson has survived an attempt to oust him as Speaker of the House of Representatives by Marjorie Taylor Greene, a hardline Republican congresswoman from Georgia, putting a lid on a period of infighting that has consumed the party in Congress.

In a vote on Wednesday evening, the House rejected Greene’s bid to move ahead with a motion to unseat Johnson, with Democrats joining most Republicans to rescue the Louisiana legislator, who became the top lawmaker in the lower chamber of Congress last October.

The vote all but ensures that Johnson will remain in his post until after the November election, unless there is a new flare-up in tensions within the party.

“Hopefully, this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress. It’s regrettable and it’s not who we are as Americans. We’re better than this. We need to get beyond it,” Johnson said in a statement after the vote.

The overwhelming nature of the vote to keep Johnson in his job represents a blow to Greene, who was booed on the House floor as she moved to try to oust the speaker, who she had been campaigning for weeks to remove. Just 11 House Republicans joined her bid, after former president Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, called in a Truth Social post on Wednesday night for a vote to reject Greene’s effort.

“If we show DISUNITY, which will be portrayed as CHAOS, it will negatively affect everything!” Trump wrote. “Mike Johnson is a good man who is trying very hard. I also wish certain things were done over the last period of two months, but we will get them done, together.”

Greene launched her effort to unseat Johnson after he allowed a vote on the House floor last month to deliver $61bn in US security aid to Ukraine, which she and many pro-Trump Republicans have strenuously opposed, pitting them against traditional members of the party who are hawkish on foreign affairs.

Greene had hoped to replicate the successful push in October by hardline Republicans to oust the previous Speaker, Kevin McCarthy. But her effort failed because Democrats decided to reward Johnson for allowing a vote on one of President Joe Biden’s top legislative priorities with the Ukraine vote, whereas they had voted to remove McCarthy in October.

In addition, Greene was unable to create a groundswell of opposition to Johnson among Republicans, who are now hoping to focus on November’s election to try to preserve their slim majority.