Marjorie Taylor Greene says outcome ‘up to Mike Johnson’ after threatening his removal

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson privately on Monday afternoon, PBS NewsHour’s Lisa Desjardins reports.

Ms Greene, a Georgia Republican, vowed last week to call a vote to remove Mr Johnson from his position. If Ms Greene triggers a “privileged motion” on her motion to vacate, the House will be forced to vote within 48 hours on his removal.

However, Democrats have signalled they will vote to save Mr Johnson if the vote is triggered, meaning he will likely survive.

Read more about how a motion to vacate works — and how the process was used to oust the last Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy:

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican from Georgia, vowed to trigger a vote on Speaker Mike Johnson’s removal this week.

Read more about Ms Greene’s gripes with Mr Johnson from The Independent’s Washington, DC Bureau Chief, Eric Garcia:

Read more from Gustaf Kilander and Eric Garcia:

Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, is standing beside Marjorie Taylor Greene and her call to vote on ousting Speaker Mike Johnson this week.

“This week we vote on whether Mike Johnson should remain as Speaker,” Mr Massie wrote on X. “If you’re happy with what he’s done this year and if you’re looking forward to what he will do the remainder of the year, you should join the Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries in supporting Mike Johnson.”

Republican Senator Thom Tillis called one of his House colleagues a “waste of time”, a bad leader, and a threat to the future of the GOP, according to a recent report.

“I think she’s uninformed, she is a total waste of time,” Mr Tillis says on the recording. “She is a horrible leader. She is dragging our brand down. She – not the Democrats – [is] the biggest risk to us getting back to a majority.”

Ms Greene has frustrated some members of her party by crusading against Mike Johnson, the current speaker of the House. Mr Johnson was installed after Congressman Matt Gaetz led a successful, though extremely unpopular campaign to remove Kevin McCarthy, then-speaker of the House.

Mr Gaetz reportedly moved to have Mr McCarthy replaced because the former speaker agreed with Democrats to pass a vote that would keep the government operating.

Representative Nancy Mace, a Republican from South Carolina, said Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate Speaker Mike Johnson can’t succeed.

“We need to get our act together and come together for the betterment of our country…I don’t know why she’s doing this because the votes aren’t there,” Ms Mace said of her colleague on Monday morning. “She’s gonna lose the motion to vacate.”

In a brief gaggle with reporters Monday afternoon, Speaker Mike Johnson said he didn’t know if Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene would force a motion to vacate vote today.

“I don’t know,” Mr Johnson said as he walked through the halls of the US Capitol. “I just gotta do my job right now.”

Ms Greene and Mr Johnson are set to have a private meeting in less than one hour.

Read analysis on why Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate against Speaker Mike Johnson could fail, from The Independent’s Washington Bureau Chief Eric Garcia: