House Democratic leaders say they would help save Speaker Mike Johnson’s job

WASHINGTON — House Democratic leadership said in a joint statement Tuesday that they would vote to help save Speaker Mike Johnson if Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., moves to oust him.

“From the very beginning of this Congress, House Democrats have put people over politics and found bipartisan common ground with traditional Republicans in order to deliver real results,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., Minority Whip Katherine Clark, D-Mass., and Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., said. “At the same time, House Democrats have aggressively pushed back against MAGA extremism. We will continue to do just that.”

Democratic leaders said they would vote to table Greene’s resolution to vacate the chair against Johnson, R-La., a move that would effectively kill the resolution. “If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed,” the Democrats said.

Johnson happened to be holding a press conference at the time the Democrats’ statement was released. As the news broke, an aide passed the speaker a note and Johnson told reporters it was the first he’d heard of it. Pressed on whether he had a deal with Jeffries, Johnson said, “No, there’s no deal at all.”

Greene, R-Ga., did not immediately respond to a request for a comment on the Democrats’ statement. She has not directly committed to bringing a vote to the floor but tweeted this week that Johnson’s “days as Speaker are numbered.”

Greene has for months railed against Johnson, particularly for bringing aid for Ukraine to the House floor. A package that included Ukraine aid as well as funds for Israel and a bill to provide a pathway to ban TikTok in the U.S. became law last week after Johnson allowed a House vote.

Democratic praised passage of that package in their statement, crediting “a bipartisan coalition of Democrats and Republicans, led by President Biden.”

The statement from Jeffries and his leadership team Tuesday is the strongest signal on how House Democrats would react to a move to oust the speaker. Many rank-and-file Democrats have said they would defer to leadership on how to handle such a vote, while a handful of moderates have signaled for weeks that would save Johnson.

One Democratic leadership aide offered some explanation to this change in their posture, which had previously been leadership asking members to keep their powder dry and not commit publicly to helping Johnson out of a motion to vacate situation. “We don’t want to participate in MTG’s MAGA circus,” this person said, “We want Congress to function and do the work of the people. The House has been consumed with enough MAGA chaos.”