Could Democrats save House Speaker Mike Johnson from an ousting?
Far-right Republicans have finally lost their patience with House Speaker Mike Johnson. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green introduced a motion to start a process for ousting Johnson.
The motion came after the speaker passed a trillion-dollar emergency spending bill with Democratic support to prevent a Government shutdown until the end of the year.
It was the second time Johnson passed a similar law since he assumed the position after the ousting of former speaker McCarthy in November. Still, this one had six rolled into one.
Usually, emergency funding is avoided with a Congress-approved budget. Each year, it has to discuss and approve laws called appropriations bills to determine the Federal government's funding for the fiscal year.
But this year, the Freedom Caucus blocked the negotiations to ensure further cuts and conservative spending priorities.
The government typically gets its funding from 12 of these bills, which have been rolled into one piece of legislation to ease the approval process in recent years.
However, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy promised separate discussions this year in exchange for his appointment as Speaker.
Individual discussions allow these representatives to tackle specific interests and make deeper cuts at a lower level in Federal institutions.
The problem is that individualized discussions tend to be longer. Congress had passed only one funding bill by the end of the fiscal year in October.
McCarthy then proposed an emergency funding bill to keep the government open until Congress passed a budget. He passed it with Democrat support and fierce opposition from the Freedom Caucus.
The deal led to a successful motion to vacate McCarthy, four voting rounds, and a week of intense discussion within the House Republican Conference.
The House Republicans then chose Mike Johnson as speaker. Despite not formally joining the Freedom Caucus, Jhonson has had the support of the group since his start as a congressman.
News correspondents and Representatives believed that the far-right caucus would not treat Johnson with the same treatment they gave McCarthy, as they shared more sympathy for him.
In a way, Marjorie Taylor Green's move shows that. She decided not to file an immediate resolution. "It is more of a warning than a pink slip," she told media.
Still, according to The New York Times House correspondent Catie Edmonson, in the event of an ousting vote, Johnson would have alternatives that McCarthy did not.
According to Edmonson, voices inside the House have hinted that, in the event of an ousting vote, Democrats could choose to support Johnson and allow him to keep his job... with certain conditions.
The journalist mainly mentioned the funding for Ukraine as the country battles the Russian invasion. Johnson has previously avoided discussing the issue.
However, as the spending bill situation unfolded, Johnson has shown increasing openness to the idea, Edmondson told The Daily host Michael Barbaro.