WASHINGTON — After a nearly two-hour meeting with Speaker Mike Johnson, far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., emerged from his office and said the two will continue their discussions Tuesday morning amid her threats to force a vote to depose him.
"We're going to be meeting again tomorrow based on the discussion that we've had," Greene said, standing in the Capitol's Statuary Hall, though she did not elaborate on what she and the speaker discussed.
She would not answer any questions about whether she was backing off forcing a vote on a so-called motion to vacate the speaker's chair.
But the continued talks between Johnson and his loudest critic in Congress suggest that the two could strike a deal to avert a vote on Johnson's future that would be an embarrassment for the party six months before the November election.
“I have been patient, I have been diligent, I have been steady, and I have been focused on the facts. And none of that has changed," Greene said, surrounded by a phalanx of photographers and reporters. "So I just had a long discussion with the speaker in his office about ways to move forward for a Republican-controlled House of Representatives. We’re talking to him tomorrow based on our discussion today."
The meeting Monday afternoon came at Greene's request, GOP sources said. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., one of only two Republicans who publicly support her effort to topple Johnson, also joined the meeting.
Speaking to reporters moments after Greene, Johnson called the meeting "productive" and said they had discussed several ideas.
"I told them, and I've said this repeatedly, that I understand the frustration; I share it," Johnson said. "I would really like to advance much more of our conservative policy on a daily basis here but the reality is we are working with the smallest majority in U.S. history with a one-vote margin."
"It makes it very difficult for us, to use my football metaphor as I often do, [to] throw touchdown passes on every single play," he added.
At a news conference last week, Greene vowed to file a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair this week — a move that would effectively force every House member to take a position on Johnson’s future.
It would mark the second time during the past year that a Republican has moved to force a vote to remove the speaker of his or her own party; in October, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., forced a successful vote to overthrow then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., paving the way for Johnson, R-La., to succeed him.
If it is brought to a vote, Johnson and his allies are expected to defeat Greene’s efforts given that Democratic leaders said last week many of their rank-and-file members will back a motion to “table,” or kill, her motion to vacate.
Both Greene and Johnson are allies of their party's presumptive nominee, Donald Trump. But the former president has signaled his support for Johnson; the two appeared together during the speaker's recent trip to Mar-a-Lago, and he joined Trump onstage together over the weekend at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania.
Speaking to reporters and posting on the social media site X, Greene has repeatedly disparaged Johnson as a "Democratic speaker."
“Speaker Johnson is under control of Jeffries and Schumer,” Greene wrote on X on Monday, referring to the Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer, both of New York. “You want your son or daughter fighting Russia in Ukraine? Keep supporting Johnson.”
Johnson explicitly said he supports aid for Ukraine, in part, because he does not want to send American fighters to Ukraine; President Joe Biden has also dismissed such an idea.
Jeffries, during an appearance on CBS’ “60 Minutes” on Sunday, didn’t disagree with Greene that Democrats are in the driver's seat, even though they have fewer votes than Republicans.
"Even though we’re in the minority, we effectively have been governing as if we were in the majority because we continue to provide a majority of the votes necessary to get things done," Jeffries said in the interview. "Those are just the facts."