House Republicans mocked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) over her effort to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
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NewsTranscript
00:00 Yeah. Yeah. All right. 123456.
00:07 Step it up. Yeah. All right, everybody. I'm talking Jake. We got actually Taylor Green
00:12 is calling for a motion to vacate. Listen, all of us in life get to decide how we handle
00:17 disappointment. You can be productive or you can be destructive. Miss Taylor Green
00:22 is choosing destructive. We know that this motion is not going to do one thing to make
00:26 America stronger. It's not going to do one thing to deliver a conservative victory. It's
00:30 going to so discord and dissent. And by the way, it's going to fail. She is engaged in
00:36 a failing act of political theater. What you have here are some of the Main Street members
00:41 who are who are the adults and we're going to do what adults do. We are going to ignore
00:46 the tantrums and instead work to actually govern this country. With that, we've got
00:52 the vice chair of the Main Street, Stephanie Bites. Look, I think Dusty said it. Well,
00:57 we've been down this road. There is no plan. Marjorie wants to, you know, so chaos and
01:02 division within the Republican Party. Someone has to govern. We have the smallest majority
01:08 in history currently, and this speaker has been put in an untenable situation to try
01:13 to govern with the one seat majority in the House, Democrat controlled Senate and a Democratic
01:19 White House. We are up against a wall here and the American people are frustrated. They
01:24 are angry. They have had enough. They want Republicans to govern. This does not help.
01:30 It's not effective. It's it's actually sowing, I think, division within the conference. We've
01:34 got to get back on track. We understand the frustration with the border. All of us standing
01:39 here before you realize the border is an issue. We want to solve it, too. But holding government
01:46 hostage is not the way to do that. Mr. Armstrong from North Dakota.
01:52 They're asking the impossible. They refuse to vote for a rule, and which means you have
01:56 to bring things to the floor without either with Democratic support. And then when you
01:59 get Democratic support, then they get mad at you for getting Democratic support. We
02:03 all wish we could have a larger conservative majority. We wish we had the Senate. We wish
02:07 we had the presidency. We do not have any of those things. A lot of the same people
02:12 that are frustrated in dealing with all of this have had the opportunity to do these
02:16 things and move forward. And the reality of this is, is this is like the congressional
02:21 version of a temper tantrum. And we continue to do it. We continue to move forward. And
02:26 what we're really doing and what they're really allowing to happen is for the Democrats to
02:30 coalesce on issues that we are that we are that we are divided on. Ukraine's a perfect
02:34 example. I disagreed with the speaker on the Ukraine vote. But the reason we don't have
02:39 we aren't allowed to bring amendments to that is because we have people in our party that
02:42 sank the rule 55 of them, which gets us to a point where we have to be where we're where
02:46 we're at. And I have probably have the longest personal relationship with Mike Johnson of
02:50 anybody here. I served with him when I got here in Congress in 2018. If Mike Johnson
02:55 is not thoughtful enough and not conservative enough for to be the Speaker of the House,
03:00 then we have real problems because there ain't anybody else that's going to be acceptable
03:03 for that job. Most of us by the time we turn 12 years old, figure out the tantrums don't
03:06 actually work. And apparently not everybody in Congress has got the memo. Mr. Lolo from
03:11 New York on both sides of the aisle. There are too many show ponies and not enough work
03:15 horses. But signed behind me are some serious members of the Republican conference who came
03:20 here to govern, who came here to fix issues on the border, fix issues on inflation. We
03:25 remain focused on those issues and we will not be distracted by Marjorie Taylor Greene
03:29 and this waste of time motion to vacate that will not have the support. Too many members
03:34 of Congress are here to seek attention for themselves, not here to represent constituents
03:38 and represent the country. There are serious issues that deserve the country's attention
03:42 that deserve the Congress's attention. Folks, but beside behind me are the ones leading
03:47 the charge in that. I'm proud to stand with him today. Ms. Della Cruz from Texas. Thank
03:52 you. Look, all of us here, we stand behind Speaker Johnson. Nobody, not any American
04:00 wants to see part two of a motion to vacate. It is destructive to America and it does not
04:07 help the crisis on our border. Speaker Mike Johnson was at our border just last week and
04:13 received overwhelming support from all sides of the aisle. Red, blue and in the middle
04:21 purple. I will tell you this. This is unnecessary and it is destructive to the future of the
04:29 Republican Party, but to America. Thank you, Mr. Despacito, New York. And then we'll have
04:36 Mr Lawler and then we'll take a few questions. Well, I think Kelly said it best in that we
04:41 wish we had a larger majority in the House. We wish we had the Senate and we wish we had
04:45 the presidency. And the best way to get there is by being a unified Republican conference.
04:51 And stunts like this does not unify our conference. Our focus should be growing our majority,
04:57 taking the Senate and electing Donald Trump president in November. That should be the
05:00 focus. These tantrums taking the country down this course again like we saw months ago.
05:07 It's not what we're going to do. It's not going to pass. And after today's vote, we
05:11 will continue governing the way Republicans should. Mr Law in New York. Oh, Moscow Marjorie
05:17 has clearly gone off the deep end, maybe the result of the space laser. But this type of
05:23 tantrum is absolutely unacceptable, and it does nothing to further the cause of the conservative
05:30 movement. The only people who have stymied our ability to govern are the very people
05:37 that have pulled these types of stunts throughout the course of this Congress to undermine the
05:41 House Republican majority. The American people gave us the responsibility to serve as a check
05:47 and balance on Joe Biden and his disastrous policies from the disastrous withdrawal in
05:52 Afghanistan, the Russian invasion of Ukraine that resulted the terrorist attack on Israel
05:58 because of the appeasement of Iran, the increase in Iranian petroleum sales $88 billion and
06:05 the fiasco at our southern border. That is a direct result of the policies of Joe Biden.
06:10 The reason we don't have border security is because we have members in our conference
06:15 who refused to pass a rule members in our conference who refused to sign on to a CR
06:20 that had border security members in our conference who have continually undermined the speaker's
06:26 ability to negotiate. That is why, if they're so upset about the things that haven't happened,
06:30 they should take a look in a mirror, starting with Marjorie Taylor Greene. How do you think
06:34 this episode reflects on the House Republican majority right now among your constituents,
06:40 among voters? You asked them for to give you the majority again. Well, most Americans are
06:44 busy leading real life, and I've got bad news for Marjorie. People are going to pay attention
06:48 to this story for about an hour and then they're gonna go back to real life. This is not going
06:52 to make her any more famous than she is. This is not going to change the arc or the trajectory
06:57 of American history. This will be a flash in a pan. She will be sorely disappointed.
07:02 The rest of us are gonna get back to work. Hold on. Let's give him advice. She's got
07:06 anything to say. I think you hit the nail on the head. I mean, this is, I think, a distraction
07:12 for all of us. And I would go back to, you know, we've tried to be thoughtful about putting
07:18 legislation forward. Is it everything that we want? No. There are certain things that
07:23 we would like to see, and we recognize that the border is a big issue. But the strategies
07:29 that our colleagues, some of our colleagues are taking as we're, you know, going down
07:34 this path are destructive. They're not helpful, and they don't move us forward. The country's
07:38 tired of this. I hear it from my constituents every time I go home. Please get back to governing.
07:44 And that's what we're here to do. Can I just ask about, you know, Trump has backed
07:48 Johnson publicly, and, you know, there's been a lot of reporting that he tried to discourage
07:51 her from doing this. Can you guys talk about that at all, and just, you know, where that
07:55 leaves her and Trump? Mr. Miller from Ohio. Well, I'm somewhat familiar with the situation.
08:00 I won't speak for President Trump. What I can tell you is that I believe that this isn't
08:04 the way that he wanted it to go. And I think that Marjorie is going to find herself in
08:08 a very lonely place. And one of the biggest things that I think we have the biggest problem
08:12 with is the disinformation that she continues to put out as a member of Congress. And actually,
08:16 what she's doing right now on the House floor, Ms. Bice just touched on. We have gotten wins
08:21 for the border for the American people that nobody talks about. In the last appropriations
08:25 package, we added 8,000 detention beds and roughly 22,000 CBP additional officers to
08:30 the border. When Republicans go out there and say that we haven't done anything and
08:34 it's not our number one priority, they're lying only to elevate their platform. I think
08:38 what this is is that Marjorie got sick and tired of people like Mr. Gates hogging all
08:42 of the attention as he usually does. And she said enough is enough. And she took the spotlight
08:47 saying she was going to do the motion to vacate on Ukraine. She had brought it up before Ukraine
08:52 had even hit the floor, which should tell you one thing again for the second time, this
08:56 failed experiment. Sometimes it's about members of Congress and not about the American people.
09:01 And hopefully that you all see that. And so did the American people. And they see acts
09:05 like this that Marjorie is doing.
09:07 Should she be kicked out of the conference?
09:09 Let's take two more and then we got to go in and do our work.
09:12 I wanted to ask about elections in New York. How vulnerable does this make you having to
09:19 do this once again, talk to New Yorkers and explain that, you know, here we are.
09:27 I think elections are about distinction in New York. That's the case. And we're happy
09:30 to distinguish ourselves from Marjorie Taylor Greene and these antics that she's providing
09:34 on the floor today. They do not represent what we feel. That's why we're on the steps
09:39 right now while she's spewing false rhetoric on the floor. We are here right now to provide
09:44 a distinction that we are much different from that. We will tell folks in Washington, tell
09:48 folks back home that this does not represent who we are.
09:51 Yes, go ahead.
09:52 What's your advice to Democrats who heard the speaker this morning say that 2020 was
09:57 a doubtful election and they're worried about noncitizens voting in 2024?
10:02 Listen, Democrats in the House, they get to make their own decision. They can vote in
10:06 a way that keeps stability and predictability for this government or they can throw us into
10:10 chaos. I hope I would hope that their decision today will be to choose stability and predictability.
10:16 Somebody else?
10:17 They chose that once already.
10:18 Yeah, right. Okay, we'll do one more.
10:19 Is there a motion to table expected today? Could that be brought today? Is that going
10:20 to be brought today?
10:21 We're not in a position to talk about tactics on the record afterwards. If somebody wants
10:29 to know the state of play off the record, I'd be happy to tell them what I know. Anything
10:33 else on the record?
10:34 Should you be? Do you think Marjorie Taylor should be punished?
10:37 One dumpster fire at a time. Let's take care of the motion to vacate and then we can worry
10:41 about whatever comes next. Thanks, everybody.
10:43 Thank you guys.
10:44 - Thank you.