Democratic Washington Rep. Pramila Jayapal stated Wednesday on MSNBC the party’s choice to “save” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson from a potential oust is a “one time opportunity.”
Jayapal appeared on “Alex Wagner Tonight” to discuss Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s decision to proceed to call for a vote to oust Johnson next week. However, a majority of House Democrats announced that they would vote to table the move from Greene, following Johnson’s push for additional foreign aid funding to Ukraine and other U.S. allies.
MSNBC host Alex Wagner questioned the Democratic representative if she believed the move was the right choice for Democrats as Johnson’s political views were not aligned with the left. (RELATED: Marjorie Taylor Greene Reveals Plan To Oust Speaker Mike Johnson)
“Well, I think that this is, as leader [Hakeem] Jefferies has defined it, a very narrow, single-use, get out of jail free card for Democrats to vote — some Democrats to vote to table the motion to vacate the speakership. This would be a Marjorie Taylor Greene motion if it came, and then there would be a motion to table it,” Jayapal stated.
“I think that there will be some Democrats who will agree to save the speaker this one time in part because of the need to get that Ukraine funding to the floor. So I do believe that this is directly tied to the fact that the speaker finally, after five months, brought that bill to the floor and allowed us to have a vote on it.”
Jayapal continued to call out Johnson’s differing views from Democrats, stating that from her understanding the opportunity from Democrats is a “one-time” ticket for the Republican House Speaker. Jayapal additionally noted that she would not be joining the Democrats who will decide to table a motion for Johnson.
“But I will say that leader Jefferies has been clear, and I’ve been clear to him and many of our members have been clear to him, that we are not going to consistently save this speaker who is anti-choice, anti-immigrant, anti-democracy. Went down to Mar-a-Lago to kiss Donald Trump’s ring and talk about all these lies about how people are voting that shouldn’t be voting — anti-LGBTQ+, and really using division, hatred, xenophobia to drive a political agenda,” Jayapal continued.
“I don’t think we can be part of doing that again, but I do understand that this is a one-time opportunity to make sure that we continue the work of the house. We have a little bit more work to do, and the speaker did bring that Ukraine bill to the floor. I’m not going to be voting to table that motion, Alex, but I know that there will be some in our party and leader Jeffries has said we should feel free to vote our conscious.”
Greene’s initial file for a motion to vacate Johnson was pushed in March, as the Georgia representative called for the House Speaker to not push through a supplemental bill that later passed.
Following the push, Johnson began to advocate for an additional foreign aid bill sending billions to Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. While some Republicans vocalized their pushback against the funding, Johnson held a vote on the legislation which was passed through to the Senate and eventually signed by President Joe Biden.
In addition to different measures, the bill approved the sending of $60.8 billion to Ukraine, $24 billion to Israel which included additional humanitarian aid, and $8 billion to Taiwan.