Republican Hints Marjorie Taylor Greene May Be Punished

Rep. Dusty Johnson hinted that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene could be punished after her failed push to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson.

Greene's colleagues loudly booed her as she criticized the Republican speaker's leadership as "pathetic, weak and unacceptable" on the House floor late Wednesday. She had pledged to force a vote on a motion to vacate the speaker if he advanced a foreign aid package for Ukraine. The package was approved in April and signed into law.

An overwhelming majority, 359-43, rejected the Georgia Republican's motion to vacate the speaker from his office, with 196 Republicans voting with 163 Democrats to procedurally block her motion. Just 10 Republicans voted with Greene to proceed with the effort to oust the speaker, more than it took to oust then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy in a historic vote last fall.

After the vote, Greene told reporters on the Capitol steps that she was "proud of what she did," The Associated Press reported.

But several of her Republican colleagues indicated they were tired of her antics.

Dusty Johnson, the chairman of the Republican Main Street Caucus, was asked if Greene should be punished for her actions. "One dumpster fire at a time," he told The Washington Post.

Rep. Carlos Giménez, a Florida Republican, said Greene "doesn't represent the Republican Party."

"I'm tired of of this being the face or the voice of the party and getting attention," Giménez said, according to the AP. "That's all she wants, is the attention."

And Rep. Mike Lawler, of New York, called for Greene and her ally Rep. Thomas Massie to be punished.

Newsweek has contacted Greene's office for comment via email.

Even former president Donald Trump, who counts Greene among his biggest allies in the House, rebuked Greene's effort to oust Johnson, while saying he loves her.

"I absolutely love Marjorie Taylor Greene. She's got Spirit, she's got Fight, and I believe she'll be around, and on our side, for a long time to come," Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social before slamming her plan to oust the speaker.

"However, right now, Republicans have to be fighting the Radical Left Democrats, and all the Damage they have done to our Country. With a Majority of One, shortly growing to three or four, we're not in a position of voting on a Motion to Vacate. At some point, we may very well be, but this is not the time."

He added that if Republicans "show DISUNITY, which will be portrayed as CHAOS, it will negatively affect everything!"

Johnson "is a good man who is trying very hard," Trump also said in the post.

"I appreciate the show of confidence for my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort," Johnson told reporters after the vote.

"As I've said from the beginning, and I've made clear here every day, I intend to do my job, I intend to do what I believe to be the right thing and I'll let the chips fall where they may. In my view, that is leadership."

Johnson added: "Hopefully this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress.

"It's regrettable, it's not who we are as Americans, and we're better than this. We need to get beyond it."