by Matthew Rusling
WASHINGTON, April 19 (Xinhua) -- A rising GOP star is calling for the ouster of the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, the latest sign of continued Republican infighting.
Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green from Georgia has called for fellow Republican and House Speaker Mike Johnson's removal, mostly over U.S. aid for Ukraine.
ANOTHER OUSTER ATTEMPT
The move came just a little over six months after Johnson's predecessor Kevin McCarthy was ousted in an unprecedented move, which was initiated by hardline Republican Representative Matt Gaetz.
Johnson "is publicly saying funding Ukraine is now his top priority when less than 7 months ago he was against it," Green wrote in a recent letter to lawmakers.
"The American people disagree -- they believe our border is the only border worth fighting a war over, and I agree with them," Green said.
Indeed, Republican voters are split over providing more funding for Ukraine.
According to a Pew Research Center survey released in December, 48 percent of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the United States is giving too much aid to Ukraine.
This share is up modestly from June, when 44 percent said this, and is substantially higher than it was at earlier stages in the war, the report showed.
"That is why I will not tolerate our elected Republican Speaker Mike Johnson serving the Democrats and the (President Joe) Biden administration," Green wrote.
"He is throwing our own razor-thin majority into chaos by not serving his own GOP conference that elected him," Green wrote.
Adding to Johnson's woes, a second GOP lawmaker has vowed support for Green's initiative.
Rep. Thomas Massie from Kentucky said earlier this week that he informed Johnson in person that he will be co-sponsoring a resolution to oust the speaker.
If the effort is successful, it would mark the second time since October that a speaker was removed from office by his own party.
Critics label the former ouster and Green's current efforts as a sign of disarray within the GOP, while supporters said a party has every right to fire a speaker it doesn't like.
WILL JOHNSON GET THE BOOT?
It remains unknown whether Speaker Johnson will be forced out.
With the resignation of Rep. Ken Buck from Colorado, Republican control in the House will stand at 218 to 213, which means the party can only afford to lose two members and still pass legislation.
Clay Ramsay, a researcher at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, told Xinhua that a majority of Republicans might vote to save Johnson.
Christopher Galdieri, a political science professor at Saint Anselm College, told Xinhua: "I can't say what the future holds, but it looks like Johnson would only survive a vote on a motion to vacate if he can win support from Democrats without alienating Republicans wholesale."
"This would be a very tough needle to thread," Galdieri said, explaining that Democrats would want to extract policy concessions in exchange for their support.
But there's only so far Johnson could give before Republicans would balk.
"And this would turn Johnson into a coalition speaker, which would be pretty uncharted territory in the modern House," Galdieri said.
Meanwhile, Democratic representatives have indicated they will vote to save Johnson if Republicans try to oust him.
"That should protect him in the short-term, although he remains vulnerable in the longer-term," Brookings Institution Senior Fellow Darrell West told Xinhua.
COULD THIS HURT THE GOP?
The current conflict comes on the heels of the ouster of former Speaker McCarthy, who was given the boot in October.
Fifty-four percent of Americans who labeled themselves conservative expressed approval for McCarthy's ouster, according to a recent CBS News poll.
It remains unknown how or whether this will impact November's presidential elections.
"I suspect the Biden campaign and Democrats generally will use this as another part of their case against the GOP -- asking voters if they want unproductive, nonstop chaos or competent, boring governing," Galdieri said.
West said Republicans turning on their own party is not good for the GOP. It plays into the Democratic narrative that Republicans cannot be trusted with the future of the country, he said.
Others, however, believe it may not make a difference.
"I think this spectacle has repeated so many times that doing it again hardly even reinforces it. People have already come to judgement about it," Ramsay said. ■
