Democrats prepared to protect Republican House speaker from ouster

Top House Democrats on Tuesday said they would table an anticipated motion to remove Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana. If Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., moves to vacate the speaker role as she has previously discussed, the Democrats plan to vote to table the motion. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., issued the statement jointly with Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif.

Will Marjorie Taylor Greene bring a motion to vacate? Greene has called Johnson a Democratic speaker of the House and said Democrats were endorsing his leadership in a statement on Tuesday. She claimed that she would give Democrats the chance to elect Johnson as their speaker and give Republicans the chance to support them in doing so. She claimed such a vote would give Americans key transparency about their leaders.

What’s this motion to vacate? The House rules allow a single member to make a motion to vacate the speaker's office. Green filed the motion last month, but it hasn’t yet been considered on the House floor. She has more recently criticized Johnson’s work with Democrats to pass legislation for international security aid to Ukraine, Israel, and U.S. allies in the Indo-Pacific region.

Dig deeper: Read Katelyn Walls Shelton’s column in WORLD Opinions about how Mike Johnson’s House is the most divided since the Civil War.