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Johnson is facing threats of a motion to vacate the speaker's
chair - the same legislative maneuver that saw Republican
Speaker Kevin McCarthy thrown out from the job for the first
time in U.S. history last year - from Representative Marjorie
Taylor Greene, a far-right Republican who is unhappy that
Congress approved aid to Ukraine.
However Greene's move has not got the same levels of support
that the motion against McCarthy received. The House Freedom
Caucus, a group of far-right Republicans who led the charge on
removing McCarthy, have said they do not think such a move would
be beneficial for House Republicans so close to the U.S. general
election on Nov. 5.
Jeffries' statement, which comes after House Democrats convened
for a regular caucus meeting on Tuesday morning, means a motion
to vacate Johnson will almost definitely be shelved, if it is
ever put to a vote.
"House Democrats have put people over politics and found
bipartisan common ground with traditional Republicans in order
to deliver real results," Jeffries said, citing the recent $95
billion foreign aid package passed on Apr. 23. "At the same
time, House Democrats have aggressively pushed back against MAGA
extremism. We will continue to do just that."
When asked about Jeffries' statement at a weekly press
conference, Johnson said he had not seen it but noted that the
House was closed for three weeks the last time there was a
motion to vacate, an occurrence the country cannot afford to
repeat.
"What the country needs right now is a functioning Congress," he
said. "They need a Congress that works well, works together and
doesn't hamper its own ability to solve these problems."
Greene accused Johnson on Tuesday of being "officially the
Democrat Speaker of the House" in a post on the social media
platform X and called for him to "resign (and) switch parties."
(Reporting by Moira Warburton and Richard Cowan in Washington,
Editing by Alistair Bell and Deepa Babington)
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