JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Louisiana Republican Mike Johnson will remain speaker of the House after a bid to oust him led by Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene failed to gain traction. Greene called for a vote on her motion to vacate this evening, and it was nixed in a matter of minutes. NPR's Eric McDaniel is on the line to talk about it. Hi, Eric.
ERIC MCDANIEL, BYLINE: Hey, Juana.
SUMMERS: Eric, remind me if you can - what are Greene's concerns with Speaker Johnson's leadership?
MCDANIEL: Well, she's upset he hasn't been militant enough trying to advance Republican priorities, basically. Johnson worked repeatedly with Democrats to do the most basic job of Congress - to keep the government open - essentially by extending funding levels set under former Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Greene didn't like that. And Johnson put forward full-year spending bills in big groups rather than individually, breaking a promise he made when he was running for the speakership. She also wanted to see a more robust amendment process on bills and just some other kind of more general procedural gripes.
SUMMERS: And her concerns there - is Greene an outlier on this? Where are other Republicans?
MCDANIEL: I mean, it's pretty complicated, right? She didn't see a lot of Republican support for this. She got a little less than a dozen folks. But most Republicans, including presidential hopeful Donald Trump, don't want to stir the pot right now, regardless of their feelings about Mike Johnson and his leadership. But there's no question that folks are frustrated with the realities of the slim Republican majorities. They've had one vote at times, and that includes Johnson himself, who says, you know, I can't throw a touchdown pass on every play. We have to work with Democrats to fund the government, to pass key legislation. I mean, Democrats had to step in here to save him, too.
SUMMERS: And Eric, I've got a question about that. Why did Democrats do this? I mean, there were nearly a dozen Republicans who voted to bring Greene's motion to the floor, and that's more opposition than McCarthy had when he actually lost his job as speaker.
MCDANIEL: I mean, Democrats needed Johnson's cooperation to advance what they saw as a key Biden priority - right? - military aid to Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan. You remember that passing just a few weeks ago - or recently (ph). For months, Johnson refused to bring that package to the floor, but eventually he did, and he did so in a way that it wasn't coupled with any poison pills, like Republican border policies or just other measures that Democrats wouldn't be able to vote for.
He's also worked with them to keep the government open, like we've talked about, hammer out annual spending bills. They've got another round of those coming up, and that garners him some goodwill. There isn't any guarantee that they'd have that same relationship when or even if Republicans managed to coalesce around a successor.
SUMMERS: Eric, take us inside the House if you can. How did members react to Greene's move here?
MCDANIEL: Well, the first thing that happened when she got up to do this was a lot of booing. Our colleague Deirdre Walsh was outside the chamber talking to members as Greene was reading out her bill. One of them, Republican Kelly Armstrong of North Dakota - he told her, we stepped on a rake 10 weeks straight in October - he's talking about the ouster of McCarthy there - and we're back here doing it again. Representative Armstrong also said we're not one big, happy family, which I would say is just a whopper of an understatement given how things have been going.
SUMMERS: OK. And, Eric, what does this mean for Speaker Johnson going forward?
MCDANIEL: Well, both a lot and not that much. The a lot is it puts the new cycle of a perilous hold on his job behind him for a while, right? It lets him focus on the actual work of leading the House of Representatives. In fact, Johnson talked just after this vote failed - this ouster failed - and here's what he said.
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MIKE JOHNSON: Hopefully this is the end of the personality politics and the frivolous character assassination that has defined the 118th Congress.
MCDANIEL: But also, you know, there's probably just not that much more the House is going to do this year. Johnson will focus on fundraising and campaigning. I mean, like the rest of us, Congress is going to be...
SUMMERS: Right.
MCDANIEL: ...In full-time campaign mode from here on out.
SUMMERS: That's NPR's Eric McDaniel. Eric, thank you.
MCDANIEL: Thank you, Juana.
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