House kills motion to vacate Johnson from speakership

Speaker Mike Johnson will keep his job after the House voted to kill a motion to oust him Wednesday evening after a dramatic showdown that took less than an hour.

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced the motion to vacate after threatening to move forward with trying to remove Johnson for several weeks, although the timing took lawmakers by surprise.

Remember: A motion to vacate is a resolution to remove the speaker by declaring the speakership to be vacant. It was a rarely used procedural until former Speaker Kevin McCarthy's removal in October.

Here's how it unfolded:

While nearly a dozen Republicans voted against tabling the motion to vacate, the vast majority were outraged Wednesday night that Georgia GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene went through with a move that was going to fail and show party disunity ahead of the election.

Rep. Dusty Johnson of South Dakota called Greene’s behavior “destructive” and warned it would sow discord.

But Republicans who backed the House speaker say they are divided about whether or not to punish those who voted against tabling the resolution.  

Duarte said with a narrow majority, administering consequences is difficult. "Her voters need to deliver consequences to her," he added.

Johnson also argued that consequences may not work, adding that "people need to sit down and analyze what’s possible and make the institution stronger."

Meanwhile, Rep. Marc Molinaro, a vulnerable New York Republican, said there should be consequences but he wasn’t ready to commit to punishing Greene now.

The House on Wednesday rejected a motion calling for Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s ouster, rebuffing an effort by one of the GOP leader’s most vocal critics, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

The 359-43 vote on a motion to table Greene’s measure required the help of Democrats, given the speaker’s narrow majority. The vote could quiet calls for Johnson’s removal among conservative hardliners, who have been angry about his support of a $95 billion foreign aid package that passed last month.

Johnson’s divided conference was evident on Wednesday as 11 Republicans sided with Greene, while 196 opposed her effort. Additionally, 163 Democrats voted to table Greene’s motion, effectively protecting the speaker. Twenty-eight members from both parties either didn’t vote or voted present.

See a detailed breakdown of how each member voted

GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene did not rule out forcing another vote against Speaker Mike Johnson and suggested that former President Donald Trump’s statement on the vote supports the potential for a motion to vacate at some point — despite the fact that Trump urged members to vote to kill her resolution.

Pressed by CNN’s Manu Raju on whether she would trigger a vote again this Congress, Greene did not answer directly, but said she is “thankful” for Trump’s support and pointed to the fact that he said on Truth Social that “at some point” Republicans may be in a position of voting on a motion to vacate.

Greene said she was not surprised by the outcome of the vote.

Greene said she initially supported Johnson, touting his Christian conservative background and that he was “radically pro-life,” but that Johnson changed “ever since he’s taken the gavel” and that her support for him dissolved following the passage of the second tranche of funding bills in March. She said the funding of Ukraine was the dealbreaker for her. 

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Democrats' decision to bolster Speaker Mike Johnson with the votes needed to keep his leadership post was “rooted in our commitment to solve problems for everyday Americans in a bipartisan manner.”

Jeffries said they just had one ask of their colleagues across the aisle in exchange for their vote – isolate the “Putin wing” of the Republican Party.

"The only thing we ask of our House Republican colleagues is for traditional Republicans to further isolate the extreme MAGA Republican wing of the GOP, which has visited nothing but chaos and dysfunction on the American people,” he said. “Isolate the performance artists, the pro-Putin wing of the Republican Party and the MAGA extremists so we can get things done for the American people.”

At the end of the vote series, House Speaker Mike Johnson and GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke on the House floor.

The interaction came after Greene's effort to oust Johnson failed dramatically and quickly. 

Earlier this week: Johnson and Greene met for hours earlier this week — both on Monday and Tuesday.

Johnson called the talks “productive” and said he was “optimistic” they could get to a resolution. But, after leaving his office on Tuesday, Greene said that Johnson had a “pretty short” window to act on a list of demands. She didn’t give a heads-up before bringing up the motion to vacate today.

CNN's Haley Talbot, Clare Foran, Morgan Rimmer and Lauren Fox contributed reporting to this post.

Former President Donald Trump said he supported the vote to kill the motion to vacate in the House of Representatives.

As Trump looks to return to the White House, he made the case that this move shows "DISUNITY, which will be portrayed as CHAOS" and "will negatively affect everything!"

While some Republicans were fuming over Greene’s move, others used humor to get through the moment. 

Even Speaker Mike Johnson was relaxed and joking with members on floor, who were playfully teasing him. 

One Republican member told CNN they joked to Johnson about putting up an obscure member — Rep. Mark Amodei — for the top job. But Amodei said that would diminish the value of a signed baseball he has from Kevin McCarthy.

Johnson laughed and told Amodei: “Wouldn’t want to diminish your eBay value.” 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene did not give any advance notice to House Speaker Mike Johnson or his office that she was planning on following through with the motion to vacate during this vote series, a GOP source said.

But Johnson always knew of the possibility of it coming up at some point this week and he had a plan in place, which was to immediately move to table the motion, so Johnson was ready when it did come up.