The spectacle of chaos in Congress was short-lived this time. Staunch Trumpist Marjorie Taylor Greene has presented a motion against the speaker of the House of Representatives, fellow Republican Mike Johnson. Faced with the new revolt of the hard wing of her party, the Democrats have come to the aid of the speaker. Thanks to their votes, the motion has been rejected outright and not even submitted for consideration.
The representatives have given 359 votes in favor, 43 against and 7 blank to an initiative that rejected putting the motion of censure to a vote. There have been 11 Republicans who have voted for the motion of censure to go ahead. Given the precarious Republican majority, that was enough for the decision to remain in the hands of the Democrats. These, as they had anticipated, have voted overwhelmingly to shield Mike Johnson.
Johnson’s immediate predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was removed from office with only eight fellow Republicans voting against him, so the atmosphere of revolt among the hardline wing of Donald Trump’s party is relatively comparable to that of the internal division crisis of the last year. It is true, however, that the wayward Republicans knew that their vote was free, given that the Democrats had anticipated their support for the speaker. Maybe if those votes had been decisive, they would have thought twice.
Marjorie Taylor Greene initially announced the motion of no confidence in the approval of the budget laws that prevented the partial closure of the Administration. The approval of aid to Ukraine for 61,000 million dollars (about 57,000 million euros) – within a broader package of 95,000 million – rekindled his anger and that of other members of the hard wing of the Republican Party, opposed to the approval of more funds for kyiv.
The paradox is that the Democratic Party, of a leftist nature, shields an ultra-conservative evangelical Christian, an anti-abortion activist, with radical positions against LGTBI rights, a defender of cuts in social benefits and a Trumpist electoral denier who led the legal efforts of a large group of Republican congressmen for annulling Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election. In some way, it is a kind of compensation for having unlocked that aid package that was so important for Biden’s foreign policy.
“At this moment, after the completion of our national security work, the time has come to turn the page on this chapter of pro-Putin Republican obstruction. We will vote to reject Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate the presidency. If she invokes the motion, she will not succeed,” the Democrats announced last week. In the end, 39 of them have distanced themselves from the party’s position, probably by running in competitive districts where they believe that vote would work against them.
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Trump has asked for a vote in favor of Johnson despite dedicating words of affection to his teammate. “I love Marjorie Taylor Greene. “She has Spirit, she has Fight, and I think she will be here, and on our side, for a long time,” she wrote on her network, Truth Social. However, when push comes to shove, in that same message he has asked to vote against the motion of censure: “If we show DIVISION, which will be portrayed as CHAOS, it will negatively affect everything! Mike Johnson is a good man who works hard. I also wish that certain things had been done in the last two-month period, but we will do them, together,” he argued.
In her defense of the motion this Wednesday in the chamber, Taylor Greene harshly criticized the president of the House. “Given the choice between advancing Republican priorities or allying with Democrats to preserve his personal power, Johnson usually chooses to ally with Democrats,” she said while her own colleagues booed her and went to show their personal support for the speaker. The congresswoman has been unfazed by the rejection of her own caucus colleagues and has described Johnson’s leadership as “pathetic, weak and unacceptable.”
After the vote in which the motion of censure was rejected, Johnson briefly appeared before journalists. “We need steady hands behind the wheel,” he said. “The country desperately needs a Congress that works,” he added, describing the attitude of the congresswoman from his party as “frivolity.”
The House of Representatives descended into chaos last year for weeks after eight Republican congressmen voted to impeach Kevin McCarthy. On that occasion, the Democrats did not come to his rescue and also contributed to his dismissal. McCarthy’s ouster sparked a nearly month-long search for a new House speaker, in a spectacle of division that Republicans want to avoid at all costs before the November elections.
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