House Democratic leaders have said they would block any impending effort to remove Speaker Mike Johnson, a new development they credit to the GOP leader's assistance in passing foreign aid.
During Tuesday's Democratic caucus meeting, House Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries assessed where rank-and-file members stood on any attempts to dismiss Johnson.
"We will vote to table Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Motion to Vacate the Chair. If she invokes the motion, it will not succeed," House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.), and Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) said in a statement.
Some expressed their objections, including Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who was reluctant to help Johnson as an architect of legal efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
However, according to a Politico source, Lofgren stated that she would be a team player.
Although Democratic leadership has been transparent regarding their position, Jeffries advised his caucus members to vote their own conscience, according to the source.
While their position is not to vote directly to save Johnson but instead to approve a procedural vote beforehand that would throw out the motion to vacate.
It's a more politically acceptable option for many in the party.
"None of the discussion that we had in caucus was about saving Mike Johnson," Aguilar told reporters.
"The underlying motion to vacate was not discussed. The motion to table was."
Dozens of Democrats, centrists in particular, have said they would be willing to intervene on behalf of Johnson if he brought the foreign aid package to the House floor.
Furthermore, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the mastermind behind the motion to eliminate Johnson's speakership, doubled down on her threat, posting to X,
"If the Democrats want to elect him Speaker (and some Republicans want to support the Democrats' chosen Speaker), I'll give them the chance to do it." Still, she did not trigger the effort during a vote series early Tuesday afternoon.
