“Speaker” Mike Johnson just got the official knife in the back

Now that “Speaker” Mike Johnson has finally done something right by allowing bipartisan Ukraine aid to pass the House, the most unhinged of House Republicans are naturally moving to get rid of him. The hammer officially fell today – it’s not clear which way it’ll land.

Marjorie Taylor Greene just announced to the media that Mike Johnson has to immediately resign or else she’s calling a vote to oust him. This is not a surprising development. But there is some intrigue as far as what happens next.

There is widespread belief that Johnson may have agreed to pass Ukraine aid in exchange for assurances from House Democrats that they’ll (perhaps temporarily) provide him with enough votes to keep his own party from ousting him. So we’ll have to see how that plays out. But there’s more.

House Republican Anna Paulina Luna recently claimed that at least two so-called “moderate” House Republicans are planning to immediately resign if a vote is called to oust Johnson. This would hand the House majority to the Democrats, and it would allow the Democrats to immediately install Hakeem Jeffries as Speaker. This would be a massive turn of events. But when Republicans make claims like this, we never can take them at face value. So we’ll have to wait to see if any such plan really exists.

In any case, we’re about to see the Speaker of the House ousted by his own party, or the Speaker of the House saved from internal ouster by the other party, or the House majority abruptly change hands. Any of those developments will be major, and will represent a new low for the Republicans.