Marjorie Taylor Greene Offers Surprise Endorsement of Mike Johnson Ahead of High-Stakes Vote: ‘Let’s Put Aside the Infighting’

Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call via AP Images

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) offered a surprise endorsement for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) on the eve of his bid to hold on to the gavel in a recorded video statement in which she declared that it is time to “put aside the infighting.”

In the past, Greene has accused Johnson of stabbing Republican voters in the back, working with Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) to fund “abortion vacations,” “trans surgeries,” and a “proxy war” in Ukraine, and even gone so far as to try to strip Johnson of his position.

“We should have a major majority, a supermajority! But we don’t. And we don’t have that, I think was based on the performance of this Congress. This Congress has had a lot of failures, in the eyes of our voters and the eyes of the American people,” fumed Greene after November’s election, and before going on to blame Johnson’s “leadership.”

But on Thursday, Greene nevertheless endorsed Johnson’s campaign to continue to lead the GOP caucus.

“Tomorrow we convene at noon in the House of Representatives, and our first order of business will be to vote for Speaker of the House. This is a historic vote, and it is the first order of business that we have to accomplish before we can even swear in as members of Congress,” began Greene. “Now, here’s how I feel about it. You all have seen may disagree with Mike Johnson at times. You’ve seen me fight against him at times. But you want to know something else? Here’s what I recognize: For the past four years, all of you and myself included, have put blood, sweat, and tears into electing President Trump. And when you want to talk about blood, President Trump himself actually was the one that shed blood after an assassin shot him in the face.”

She continued:

Here’s what I know. All of you are sick and tired and fed up out of the drama, and all of the garbage that comes out of Washington, D.C.. And after two terrorist attacks on our nation, where innocent people were killed. And after four years of unbelievably horrific government policies, and now that we’re in $36 trillion in debt, all of you at home and myself included, are ready for the drama to end.

Well, here’s what I’m asking my colleagues to do: Let’s put aside our pride, let’s put aside our egos, and let’s put aside the infighting. It’s time to come together as Republicans, and it’s time to do whatever it takes to make sure that we deliver the mandate that the American people told us to do. And that’s why I’m excited tomorrow, I cannot wait to get started. I’ll be voting for Mike Johnson. I will be looking ahead in complete hopefulness, and working as hard as possible.

You see, we’re going to elect a speaker and then we’re going to swear in as members of Congress. And then on Monday, we’re going to certify the most historic election in our nation’s history when we certify Donald John Trump’s election as 47th president of the United States. We’re going to spend a few weeks getting to work, working hard on preparing for his agenda. And then on January 20th, we’re going to inaugurate Donald John Trump as the 47th president of the United States.

Now it’s 18 long days until we get to that important day. And while all of us are praying and many of us are scared after what we’ve seen, and many of us are unsure if we’ll be even able to get there and see President Trump go back in the White House. I’m going to tell you this: I’m giving it my all and I can’t wait to get started tomorrow. All right, we’ll see you there.

One Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), has already said he will vote against Johnson. The incumbent speaker cannot afford a single other Republican “no” vote, although he could still prevail if a small number of objectors vote “present.”