The agreement to avoid a government shutdown between Speaker Mike Johnson and the Democrats threatens to have the same outcome as the deal that cost Kevin McCarthy his job. Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, threatened to file a motion to vacate the speaker of the House of Representatives if he did not accept her demands on the budget, something that does not appear to be happening. Given this situation, Democratic legislators recommended Johnson "speak to Hakeem Jeffries," the leader of the Democratic minority in the Lower House, to support him in case the vote to overthrow him materialized in exchange for some concessions.
"Unacceptable"
Taylor Greene confirmed her position - and her threat - during an interview with Steve Bannon in War Room, in which she accused her colleague of continuing with Nancy Pelosi's Democratic agenda:
In my meeting with him yesterday and many other members of Congress, I let Speaker Johnson know that in no way, shape or form will I support any type of CR [continuing resolution]. We aren’t continuing Nancy’s budget, Nancy Pelosi’s budget, and that if he moves forward with a separate deal, trading our border security, weakening H.R. 2 in exchange for $60 billion to Ukraine. I told him yesterday in his office that I would vacate the chair, that that is absolutely unacceptable.
The congressional leader of the Freedom Caucus, Bob Good, supported his "vehement" rejection of the agreement between Johnson and Chuck Schumer - leader of the Democratic majority in the Senate -, but called it "a ridiculous supossition" to think that they could overthrow Johnson from his group. However, if Taylor Greene presented the motion, the division of the conservatives in the House, and its weakness - they only have a two-vote margin in its majority - could allow the fall of the second Republican spokesperson in this legislature. In fact, Congressman, Chip Roy, also warned that the same thing which "killed" McCarthy "is killing Johnson."
Democrats would not keep Johnson out of "charity"
However, some Democratic representatives were willing to lend a hand to Johnson, according to The Hill. Henry Cuéllar recommended Johnson speak with the Democratic minority leader to reach some type of agreement that would allow him to continue in office. "As I told McCarthy: Talk to Hakeem, and there are some of us that can support you. I will say the same [to Johnson].
More explicit was his fellow member Dan Kildee, who stressed that the help would not be free and Johnson would have to "take Democratic input." Kildee recommended that the current speaker not do like his predecessor who told the Democrats to "pound sand"
[Johnson] He would have to be more willing than Kevin McCarthy was to sit down with Hakeem Jeffries and have a conversation about what it would take for us to be helpful. Kevin said to pound sand. He didn’t want the help. We wouldn’t be offering it as an act of charity. We would say, "Look, if you need Democrats to govern, then you’re going to have to take Democratic input."
