House Speaker Mike Johnson helped to negotiate a $1.2 trillion bill funding federal operations for the next six months… and now he’s facing a possible mutiny from House Republicans unhappy with Johnson’s refusal to include conservative priorities in the bill.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., announced Saturday that she’d filed a motion to vacate Johnson from the speakership.
However, Johnson has found an unlikely ally… self-declared socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday about the price of voting against Greene’s motion to vacate.
“So, in the House of Representatives, House Speaker Mike Johnson is facing a real revolt within the Republican Conference. After passing the government funding bill this week on Friday, Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene announced a call to vote to remove him as speaker, a motion to vacate, at some point,” Tapper remarked.
“Some Democrats are saying they’re going to vote — if the motion to vacate comes up, they will vote to keep Speaker Johnson as speaker to avoid additional chaos. How would you vote?”
Ocasio-Cortez seemed open to voting for Johnson… for something in return.
“You know, I think that Democrats, we work as a team,” the New York Democrat said.
“But I think, for those of us and for any Democrat inclined, I don’t think we do that for free. And I don’t think that we do that out of sympathy for Republicans. And I think that the realities of governance are there. We want to make sure that that governance continues and that responsible governance continues, and that generally tends to happen under a Democratic majority.”
As of now, Ocasio-Cortez plans to vote for House Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries during the next elections for the speakership. Still, she acknowledged the possibility of a change in plans.
“My vote would most likely be for a Speaker Jeffries, which becomes an increasingly likely reality day after day, as Republicans pursue further midterm resignations,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
“I am not inclined to vote for a Speaker Johnson. I’m not inclined to vote for an individual who — for speaker who doesn’t believe in women’s rights, doesn’t believe in rights to bodily autonomy, who has supported overturning a presidential election.”
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Ocasio-Cortez made a similar remark about Kevin McCarthy, the last House speaker to face an ouster effort.
In an October appearance on CNN, Ocasio-Cortez expressed curiosity about a bailout agreement to save McCarthy, but she called for “a real conversation between the Republican and Democratic caucuses and Republican and Democratic leadership about what that would mean.”
In Ocasio-Cortez’s view, the Democrats would vote for McCarthy only as part of a deal to increase their power as a voting bloc. For example, some pundits were suggesting a power-sharing agreement, an unprecedented arrangement.
“I don’t think we give up votes for free,” Ocasio-Cortez said in October.
The Horn editorial team