GOP Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is lashing out at House Speaker Mike Johnson for failing to secure a GOP supermajority despite voters giving President-elect Donald Trump a “mandate.”
Trump, who defeated Vice President Kamala Harris by 85 Electoral College votes and around 3 million popular votes in last week’s election, gave Johnson his enthusiastic endorsement to continue as speaker during a Wednesday meeting with House Republicans, the Associated Press reported.
While some media outlets have projected that Republicans will retain their razor-thin grip on the House, the election results are not official and control of the chamber has yet to be called by the AP. Regardless of the final tally, it appears unlikely the GOP will significantly expand its House majority for next year, despite flipping control of the Senate and the White House.
Greene, a staunch supporter of Trump but a frequent critic of Johnson, did not mention the president-elect’s endorsement while blaming the speaker for a lackluster election performance by House Republicans during a short interview with CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday.
Anna Moneymaker; John Moore/Getty Images
“We should have a major majority, a supermajority,” Greene said. “We don’t have that, I think just based on the performance of this Congress. This Congress has had a lot of failures, in the eyes of our voters and the eyes of the American people.”
She went on: “The American people gave a mandate last Tuesday of the types of policies they want, the agenda that they want. That’s President Trump’s policies that he laid out on the campaign.”
Raju then asked Greene whether she thought Johnson was “to blame for that,” prompting the Georgia Republican to say: “Yes, his leadership, unfortunately. He passed, fully passed, the Biden-Harris agenda.”
Newsweek reached out via email for comment to Johnson’s office on Wednesday.
Raju also said that Johnson had told him on Wednesday that is “not concerned” about the possibility of opposition to his continued House leadership because he believes that “Donald Trump will help him get there.”
Republicans announced plans to challenge Johnson for the speakership during the GOP leadership meeting, and his role will need to be confirmed by the full House in an early January vote.
Assuming that Republicans keep control of the chamber, Johnson’s continued role as speaker is likely to be at risk if a very small number of Republicans refuse to vote for him, regardless of Trump’s backing.
Johnson will need to get at least 218 votes to remain speaker. As of Wednesday afternoon, the AP projected that the Republicans would control at least 217 House seats, with 11 races still to be called.
However, only five of the remaining races were leaning Republican. If the Republican majority is established at 222 seats, Johnson will be able to afford only four GOP “no” votes, assuming that all Democratic members vote against him.
