The House yesterday overwhelmingly rejected a bid by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.).
Greene forced a vote on the motion to vacate after meeting with the speaker twice this week to discuss her grievances and demands.
House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) then offered a measure to table Greene’s motion to vacate. Democrats joined Republicans to approve its shelving in a 359 to 43 vote. Eleven Republicans voted to move forward with the ouster attempt—three more than those who voted to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in October.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) joined the majority of his conference in voting to shelve the measure before it got a formal vote.
Speaking on the House floor during what was intended to be the final vote of the week, Greene lambasted Johnson, alleging that he had “aided and abetted the Biden administration in destroying our country.”
She received a loud “boo” from members present when she brought the resolution to the floor.
Following the vote, in remarks to the press, Johnson expressed thanks to his colleagues who voted to kill the motion to vacate, which he called “misguided” and a “distraction.”
Johnson said it’s time to move onto solving issues in the United States and electing former President Donald Trump in November.
After the vote, Greene lamented that “the uniparty was on full display.” She expressed no regret in putting forth the motion.
Republican supporters of Johnson took a victory lap following the vote to table the motion.
Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) said that the vote “validated” that Johnson is “doing a good job” as speaker.
“It is overwhelming that the majority of, certainly of our conference, and even a good number of Democrats understand the absolute value of not sending this place into turmoil yet again,” said Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.), referencing McCarthy’s ouster.
Johnson got a last-minute boost from Trump, who said now is “not the time” for a motion to vacate.
“If we show DISUNITY, which will be portrayed as CHAOS, it will negatively affect everything!” the former president said on Truth Social.
“Mike Johnson is a good man who is trying very hard. I also wish certain things were done over the last period of two months, but we will get them done, together,” he continued.
Greene said Trump wasn’t wrong in his statement, but declined to answer whether she would put the motion on the floor again.
—Joseph Lord and Jackson Richman
WEAPONS PAUSE
President Joe Biden said yesterday that the United States will not provide Israel with the necessary weapons if it decides to enter population centers in Rafah to clear out the remaining Hamas bases.
He made the comments in a rare appearance on CNN.
“I made it clear,” President Biden told CNN’s Erin Burnett in Racine, Wisconsin. “If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons.”
“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks,” he said.
“But it’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells,” he added.
Biden acknowledged the fact that Israel has already entered Rafah but said “they haven’t gotten into the population centers.”
Biden’s comments drew bipartisan criticism, but were welcomed by progressives and some moderate Democrats.
“Hamas murdered thousands of innocent civilians, including babies, and are still holding Americans hostage, if the hostages are still alive. Yet Crooked Joe is taking the side of these terrorists,” former President Donald Trump said in a post on his social media platform Truth Social.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) applauded the president’s remarks.
“President Biden enforcing conditions on U.S. military aid and holding the Israeli gov. to the same bar we hold all our allies to is the responsible, secure, and just thing to do,” she wrote on X. The president’s “historic shift to include Israel in U.S. standards makes the world safer and our values clear.”
Biden’s comments came after Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that the Biden administration has delayed the delivery of some munitions to Israel as it reviews their use that would almost definitely impact civilians in the heavily populated Gazan city.
The Pentagon is reviewing some of the planned weapons shipments to Israel against the backdrop of a possible Israeli siege of Rafah in southern Gaza, Mr. Austin said during a Wednesday hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
He clarified that no decision had been made to halt the shipments in question altogether.
“We’re assessing. We have not made any final decisions on this yet. ... There are some things that we’re taking a closer look at.”
There are currently about 1.5 million people in Rafah, most of whom were forced to flee their homes in the north because of Israel’s initial offensive. The Biden administration fears that a large-scale Israeli military operation in the region would mean tens of thousands of additional civilian deaths.
Israel’s war in Gaza is now in its seventh month following the Hamas terrorists’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, which left more than 1,200 dead. Some 33,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s subsequent invasion, according to local health authorities and statements from the Israeli military.
—Emel Akan and Andrew Thornebrooke
BOOKMARKS
Police cleared out the pro-Palestinian protest encampment at George Washington University at 3:45 am on Wednesday. The move came just ahead of a now canceled Congressional hearing where D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser was to explain her earlier refusal to allow the police to intervene.
The Epoch Times has learned that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) uncovered evidence of COVID-19 vaccine-related deaths as early as 2021, even though it later denied this connection. Heart specialist Dr. Andrew Bostom accused the CDC of “concealing these deaths.”
FreedomWorks, a conservative advocacy group active in D.C. for the past 40 years, has shut down. Leadership cited waning donations and division around Donald Trump as the main causes.
The Biden administration will propose new rules for asylum-seekers to the Department of Homeland Security on May 9. The rule changes are meant to hasten the deportation of individuals posing a threat to public safety.
The Secret Service insisted that it must be allowed to protect Donald Trump if he is jailed. The former president is facing possible jail time for violating a gag order related to his New York “hush money” trial.