Greene's 'vacate' push on hold amid ongoing talks with speaker

WASHINGTON — Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene put her campaign to oust Speaker Mike Johnson on an indefinite pause Tuesday, saying she was no longer committed to forcing a vote on vacating the speaker’s office this week.

After meeting with Johnson for the second time in as many days, Greene and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said they would wait to hear how the embattled speaker responds to four “suggestions” they made on policy changes they want to see enacted.

“Right now, the ball is in Mike Johnson’s court,” Greene said on the Capitol steps alongside Massie, shortly after a roughly 90-minute meeting in the speaker’s office. “He understands that he’s got to be our Republican speaker of the House.”

The two GOP detractors were seeking several concessions from Johnson as the price for abandoning their plan to trigger a floor vote on a motion to vacate the speaker’s office.

Those demands include:

— A commitment to oppose additional Ukraine aid.

— Upholding the so-called Hastert rule, named for former Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., that requires support from a majority of the GOP majority for Republican leaders to bring a bill to the floor.

— A promise to enact a 1 percent across-the-board spending cut as part of stopgap funding legislation if the 12 annual appropriations bills aren’t enacted by the Sept. 30 deadline.

And Greene’s top priority, she said, was a promise to “defund” the office of special counsel John L. “Jack” Smith, who is pursuing the prosecution of former President Donald Trump on charges related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election and retaining classified documents.

The House could take up separate legislation to kill the permanent funding stream that Smith’s office draws from, such as a bill from Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., but there’s little likelihood of Senate action. And including such a rider in an appropriations bill could raise germaneness problems, since the special counsel’s funding is permanently authorized.

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