Marjorie Taylor Greene — Press Conference on Democrat Leader Hakeem Jeffries' Endorsement of Mike Johnson for Speaker

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you

Speaker 1 (higher-pitched voice): Good morning, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to come out this morning. You know, it's really easy once you get elected and come to

Woman 2: Washington, D.C., to put it in cruise control and just go along with the status

Speaker 3: quo. But that's not why I ran for Congress, and that's not why I came to Washington, D.C

As a

Woman 2: matter of fact, I was one of the Americans in 2016 that looked at a presidential stage of 17 Republican candidates, and the only one that stood out to me was Donald John Trump, the very man that stood out and represented Republican voters and Americans all over the country that were sick and tired of a Republican establishment failing us over and over

Woman 4: again. That's why I supported him in 2016. That's why I supported him in 2020. And that's why I support him now. But what happened when President Trump became president and the Republican majority in the House and the Republican majority in the Senate is the Republican establishment under Paul Ryan failed President Trump and failed the agenda that we wanted to get done. They passed a $1.3 trillion omnibus that did not fund the wall after we had stood at Trump rally after Trump rally and said, build the wall. They failed us

They funded

Woman 4: the uniparty agenda

Woman 5: They funded the status quo that Washington, D.C. just wants to keep going and keep going. And you know what happened

Yeah. And

Woman 5: that's why Republicans lost the midterms in 2018 and Nancy Pelosi became speaker. Republicans didn't fight. They

allowed the Russia

Woman 4: hoax. And then what happened when Democrats took over the House? It was impeachment number one and the entire war against President Trump continued. And that war on President Trump is the war on the same voters today. They're ready to

go and

Woman 4: vote for that man in November and put him in the White House in January. And that's exactly what is happening. He's winning poll after poll after poll because he's the only one fighting while Republicans in the House and Republicans in Washington continue to cave and be part of the uniparty. Mitch McConnell has a 6% approval rating for a reason. And that's because he's caved to the Democrats and continued the disgusting business model in Washington, D.C. that thrives on forever wars

and

Woman 4: thrives on building a bigger government and taking away the freedoms bit by bit by bit of Americans. Republican voters in America, Americans all together gave Republicans the house. They gave us the house in 2022. You wanna know why? Because they were fed up with the Democrat agenda that is destroying this country, wide open borders

an

Woman 4: economy that's crashing, freedoms being stolen, COVID shutdowns, all the horrors that happened when Joe Biden took the White House and Democrats took full control. That's why we won the House in 2022. But

what have

Woman 4: we done with it

What are we giving Republican

Woman 4: voters to vote for

What

Woman 4: President Trump is the reason why people are going to turn out in November. And I'm here fighting every single day to push my party to be a Republican-controlled majority that will fight and pass his agenda when he's in the White House in January. And right now, we are not that Republican majority

We have a

Woman 4: speaker, Mike Johnson, that we all... By the way, I elected him. I voted for that man. So I have every right to be standing here

It

Woman 4: wasn't a choice of America, it was a choice within our Republican conference. I voted for Mike Johnson, because his voting record before he became speaker was conservative. He voted against funding Ukraine. He was solidly pro-life. He voted to secure the border. He voted to fight against Democrats, fight against the witch hunt against President Trump

But

Woman 4: once he became Speaker, he has become a man that none of us recognize. He passed three continuing resolutions, and then he finally passed a two-part omnibus that fully funded Joe Biden's agenda and the Democrat agenda. Funded the Department of Justice, that is what's to put President Trump in jail for the rest of his life, which is a death sentence

Mike

Woman 4: Johnson fully funded the FBI, which raided Mar-a-Lago, and he gave him a brand new building as a gift

Pro-life Mike

Woman 4: Johnson funded full-term abortion clinics, funded the trans agenda on children that 70% of Americans are completely against on both sides of the aisle

And he

Woman 4: fully funded Joe Biden's open border policies, the number one issue in America. So I

entered a motion to

Woman 4: vacate, but I didn't call it for a vote. I was controlled. I was responsible. I was being conscious and caring about my conference and our majority. It was a warning

to

Woman 4: stop serving the Democrats and support our Republican conference and support our agenda. And he didn't do it. And we all went home and Republican voters everywhere, Americans were raging at Mike Johnson and he doubled down. He didn't change course, he continued. And when we came back, he reauthorized FISA and he was the deciding vote himself to stop the warrant requirement of FISA, he voted it down. When only six months before that, before speaker, he was for it

That was

Woman 4: the second betrayal. And then we all went home and America raged and I was still responsible. I was still patient and I was still being careful with our Republican majority

And then we

Woman 4: came back

then we

Woman 4: came back. And that's when Mike Johnson fully joined the disgusting business business model of Washington, D.C. to fund forever wars. Yeah, that's what this is. The unit party is make Ukraine great again. The unit party is all about funding every single foreign war. They think this is the business model that needs to be

done

Speaker 6: Americans do

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): not want to send their hard-earned tax dollars to fund the murder and

Woman 4: killing in foreign countries. They're fed up with it, and they're screaming it as loud as they possibly can. Our economy should not be built on the blood of wars in foreign countries today. That's not what our economy should be built on. That's not how you grow jobs in America

That is

Woman 4: horrific. It is evil. It needs to end. But that's what the Uniparty does. And that's what they continue. Mike Johnson fully embraced it

And he

Woman 4: funded 61 more billion dollars to Ukraine. Funded a war in Israel. While he funded Hamas in Gaza

How

Woman 4: do you support Israel when you're funding Hamas

It gave

Woman 4: more money away while our border stays open. And today, 300 Americans will die from fentanyl. Tomorrow, 300 Americans will die from fentanyl. And the next day, 300 more Americans will die from fentanyl poisoning because there's a war on America

Woman 5: led by the cartels in Mexico. And nobody in Washington, D.C. gives a damn and has enough courage to face it. Americans are sick of it

Sick and

Woman 5: tired and fed up. And you want to know something? Nobody wants to rock the boat in Washington DC. Oh, no. That would be uncomfortable, Marjorie

Woman 4: We don't want to face the issues, Marjorie. Let's just wait and get through the election, Marjorie. Let's just assume President Trump is going to win and we'll fix it next Congress, Marjorie. Well, I'm sorry

I How

Woman 4: many more Americans have to die? How many more dead American bodies have to pile up before the House of Representatives that's paid for by Americans' tax dollars actually does something about it? I

want to know when this

Woman 4: town is going to give a damn about Americans. And that's what this is really about

Well, there's

Woman 4: one thing I know. There's one thing I know

There's one thing I know. If we get

Woman 4: President Trump back in the White House in January of 2025 and we are lucky enough to earn the trust again from voters in America to have a Republican majority in this House of Representatives, we have a job to do. We cannot let people down again. We cannot fail President Trump. And this cannot happen. The MAGA agenda that I believe in

The

Woman 4: Make America Great Again agenda that I support and Americans support and the whole reason why Republicans are going to turn out and vote in November because they support President Trump. We need leaders in the House of Representatives that are going to get this done. Not working for Hakeem Jeffries, not working for Joe Biden

And

Woman 4: not going to be twisted and lulled into keep continuing the

Woman 5: disgusting practices of Washington, D.C. Mike Johnson is not capable of that job. He has proven it over and over again

Now we have Hakeem

Woman 5: Jeffries and the Democrats coming out, embracing Mike Johnson with a warm hug and a big, wet, sloppy

Woman 4: kiss

And

Woman 4: they are ready to, they have endorsed him. They are ready to support him as speaker. They want to keep it going, keep the band together

Woman 5: Why? Because Mike Johnson is giving them everything they want. Everything they want

Every single

Woman 5: thing they want. So

it's really

Woman 5: interesting to me. Hakeem Jeffries that has gone through round after round of speaker votes, and we've all witnessed it, haven't we, America

And

Woman 5: I wanna tell you, I think it's good that America witnessed

all of that. And

Woman 5: the Democrats said his name over and over again. They said Hakeem Jeffries, because they wanted to elect him speaker. Well, I find it very satisfying that they are ready to vote for Mike Johnson. And you wanna know something? I wanna see

Woman 4: it happen. And I also wanna see recorded votes. I think the American people, by the way, who I represent, I think the American people need to see a recorded vote of do they does congress does members of congress support the uniparty is this what they support i think every member of congress needs to take that vote

Woman 5: and let the chips fall where they may and so next week i am going to be calling this motion to vacate absolutely calling it. I can't wait to see Democrats go out and support a Republican speaker and have to go home to their primaries and have to run for Congress again, having supported a Republican speaker, a Christian conservative. I think that'll play well. I'm excited about it. And I also can't wait to see my Republican conference

Woman 4: show their cards and show who we are because voters deserve it

Is

Woman 4: the Republican Party, have they finally learned their lesson? Have they finally heard the message from voters back at home? Are they willing to actually fight or are they going

to

Woman 5: just keep going along to get along? Because it's really easy to do that in Washington, D.C. I'm

going to tell

Woman 5: you, at over $34 trillion in debt with millions and millions of people invading our country

An

Woman 5: economy that I don't even know how is staying afloat because every business owner I know has been suffering and people fed up with the drama on television and fed up with the fighting and fed up with the bullshit from Washington, D.C. are ready for a Republican majority that's ready to support President Trump and his agenda in January of 2025. And I'm happy to deliver that vote for

Woman 2: everyone next week

And

Woman 2: at this time, I'd like to turn it over to my good friend and ally here, Thomas Massey. And he'll explain his thoughts on this. Thank you

Well, it's an honor

Speaker 9: to be here today with one of the hardest fighting, most articulate members of our Republican conference. I think she's gone about this in a very reasonable way. She's given the speaker multiple

Speaker 10: chances to resign, to leave. And instead, he's clinging to power by clinging to Democrats

What are

Speaker 11: the three betrayals that he has delivered to our party and to the country? Well, the first betrayal was the omnibus bill. You know, under Kevin McCarthy, we did seven separate spending bills. And then when Mike Johnson took over, did we start working on the other five? No. We threw the seven in the trash. All the hard work that we had done, Mike Johnson disposed of and decided to

do an

Speaker 11: omnibus bill. An omnibus bill that spends more than Nancy Pelosi's omnibus bill

An

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): omnibus bill that builds the FBI a brand new building. Meanwhile, we're over here in our Judiciary Committee asking them for answers. They mock us. They thumb their noses at us. And why shouldn't they? If we're going to build them a new building and send them strongly worded

Speaker 11: letters as if we're going to do something about their insolence. The second betrayal of Mike Johnson was FISA, passing FISA without warrants

Did he

Speaker 11: do this? Did he do this in the proper way? No. The authority

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): for the FISA 702 program rests with the Judiciary Committee. But Mike Johnson decided to let the Intel Committee run this program

And then when

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): it came, we fought hard in the Rules Committee

Speaker 11: we fought hard in Judiciary. We got a vote on the floor on warrants, whether you should have to have a warrant to spy on Americans

This is

Speaker 11: a constitutionally redundant vote. It should be obvious to anybody that's read the

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): Constitution that you need warrants. And you can say, well, poor Mike Johnson, he's got such a slim majority. You can't get everything you want. Marjorie Taylor Greene or Thomas Massey, he's got such a slim majority. He was the slim majority that cast the deciding vote that says you can spy on Americans without a warrant

it

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): was 212 to 212. Go look it up. He didn't vote on the other amendments. He went out of his way to vote no on that amendment and was the deciding vote on FISA without warrants. So what was the third betrayal, the third and final betrayal? A hundred billion dollars for foreign wars

and he

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): just put that on the floor. It started out as a veterans bill to give veterans better benefits, HR 815. Chuck Schumer stripped every word out of it, put this supplemental in it and send it back to the house. And then using the rules committee that I sat on, but I can't go along with what they

did. They

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): pretended like we voted on four separate bills, but then after those votes passed, they changed them to amendments and concurred with the Senate bill and sent it back to the Senate

This

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): whole thing was pre-conference with Chuck Schumer

Why is it

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): that on all three betrayals, the Senate didn't change a word of these bills when they went to the Senate from the House? It's because Mike Johnson was doing Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden's bidding. They didn't need to change a word of any of these bills. Chuck Schumer fought against all the amendments

He

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): wanted those bills exactly as Mike Johnson had passed them, exactly as Mike Johnson had promised. FISA without warrants, an omnibus with

Speaker 13: a new building for the FBI, and $100 billion of foreign aid with no border security

in it. As

Speaker 13: Ms. Green stated, our border is wide open. Wide open. This was our last chance for leverage, and the speaker gave it all

up

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): Now, why would Hakeem Jeffries endorse a Republican speaker? Aren't they arch rivals? I mean, what does Hakeem Jeffries want, after all? He wants an open border. He wants

Speaker 13: increased spending. He wants to take back the majority. And most of all, he and the Democrat conference here want President Trump to lose. Who do they think can deliver on all four of those things

Mike

Speaker 13: Johnson will deliver these things for them. Increased spending, open borders, a loss of our majority, and a

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): loss for President Trump. Because this is so demotivating here. We sat here and watched total capitulation with the Democrats waving flags. It was premeditated of another country, not the American flag

You know, Mike Johnson should

Speaker 10: have brought the white flag and waved it in front of us

because it

Speaker 10: was a complete

Speaker 13: capitulation. It was a humiliation not just to us, but to all the American people who pay their tax dollars only to see them go overseas, fund foreign wars, secure other countries' borders without securing our borders. I'm going to challenge my colleagues to think about it this weekend, because As Marjorie Taylor Greene said, we're coming back and we're voting on this next week

And you get

Speaker 13: to have the choice if you're

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): a Republican. Are you going to embrace Hakeem Jeffries like Mike Johnson has? Are you going to embrace the uniparty like Mike Johnson

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): has when you come back next week

Are you

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): going to fight for Americans who gave us the majority

And

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): you may say, oh, well, this is lovely bipartisanship Look, you've got Hakeem Jeffries hugging Speaker Mike Johnson And helping him keep his seat But the reality is, this isn't policy This isn't like some criminal justice reform Where the left and the right can agree This is about who holds that gavel Right now, they are both holding that gavel They are sharing power About... procedures, about what bills will come to the floor, about how long we will debate those bills, and which committees are comprised of which members. They are sharing power

Now, you

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): may say, and I'll close with this, Congressman Massey, Hakeem Jeffries just told you he's going to save Mike Johnson's bacon. So why go through with this? It's a futile exercise. Why would you go through with this

Speaker 13: Look

We

Speaker 13: didn't get elected to make excuses. We didn't get elected to say we shouldn't even try. We got elected to come here and give it

our best

Speaker 13: and also to impose transparency. What we've seen here is the coming out of the Uniparty. And it will be consolidated and it will be transparent and apparent next week

to all

Speaker 13: Americans when this vote happens. Too many of our colleagues

Speaker 10: have thrown up their hands in frustration and apathy

Oh

Speaker 10: we shouldn't even try. Let's just coast this one out. I

tell you

Speaker 10: what, it's too dangerous to coast this one out. We cannot coast this one out. Hakeem Jeffries knows if we coast this one out, we lose the majority

Spending

Speaker 13: goes up next fall

He knows

Speaker 13: the border will stay open

And he knows

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): this is going to demotivate our voters because we've given up. Why should they try

So we are

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): not going to give

up. We

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): will fight the Uniparty

and we

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): will have this vote next week

And I

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): look forward to it. And I've got one last challenge. I challenge members of my own conference to think long and

hard about

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): whether they want to join the Uniparty next week. But we have a leadership team, a team of leaders, from conference chair to majority leader. Why do we have a team? We

have a

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): team so that when one of them goes off the rails, The others of them can meet with them and say, you are no longer suited for this job

So I

Speaker 14 (higher-pitched voice): challenge the whip, the majority

Speaker 10: leader, the conference chair, the policy chair, everybody in our conference to sit down with Mike Johnson and have that talk and tell him it's not worth it, Mike. It's not worth it to share power with Hakeem Jeffries just for the vanity of you keeping the title of speaker. It doesn't serve our country. It doesn't serve our conference. They need to ask him to resign

That is what

Speaker 10: they should do

And I

Speaker 10: challenge them to have that tough discussion. In fact, we'll take questions

Speaker 15: If

Speaker 16: this vote fails next

Speaker 18: week, as is expected, will you continue to try to force a vote on this issue? And two, former President Trump has said positive things about this speaker and has said he doesn't favor a motion to vacate. Aren't you defying former president's wishes

Speaker 1 (higher-pitched voice): Absolutely not. I'm the biggest supporter of President Trump, and that's why I proudly wear this MAGA hat. I fight for his agenda every single day and that's why I'm

Woman 2: fighting here against my own Republican conference to fight harder against the Democrats. Mike Johnson has fully funded the Department of Justice that wants to put President Trump in jail, giving him a death sentence. He fully funded the FBI that raided Mar-a-Lago and gave them a brand new building. He fully funded Biden's wide open border. I know everybody knows the American people know and every voter that's ready to line up and vote for President Trump in November knows between me and Mike Johnson, who's supporting President Trump and his agenda. And that is absolutely me. Number one, if this vote fails in the whole

Woman 19: conference, the whole Congress supports the unit party, let me tell you something that is not a failure. It's a win for the American people because that's a list of names. And the voters and the American people who pay for everywhere, we're standing on ground they pay for. They pay for that building. They deserve that list. I believe in recorded votes. That is our job. Our job is to vote. And if anyone is scared of where they're going to vote on a motion to table or

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): if it goes further, then they don't belong here in Washington. They have to be ready to do the hard job

Speaker 21: W

Why move forward

Speaker 21: and defiance of former President Trump and why next week and not today? We

have

Speaker 20 (higher-pitched voice): to have a Republican majority in January and under Mike Johnson's leadership, we're not going to have

Woman 19: one because Republican voters, just like Thomas Massey just said, Hakeem Jeffries is endorsing Mike Johnson because he knows Mike Johnson's

Woman 4: leadership is going to hand the House majority to the Democrats in January. It will make our voters not want to vote for him. They're going to turn out and vote for President Trump top of the ticket and then

they're going to

Woman 4: They're gonna skip Republican House members because they're disgusted with Mike Johnson, his leadership, his speakership in the Uniparty. That's exactly why we have

to do

Woman 4: this. We have to win in November. We have to have a majority in the House. You wanna know why? All you people, your taxes are gonna go up if the Democrats control the House. That's right, the whole tax cut. You know, President Trump's tax cuts and savings plan, guess what, it expires this year

And

Woman 4: whoever controls the House of Representatives, if it's Mike Johnson and Hakeem Jeffrey holding hands together, your taxes are going up, ladies and gentlemen. And you want to know else? Your money is going to be funding Ukraine because they already want more money for Ukraine. They're demanding it already. That check cleared, and it wasn't even a week. And

Woman 19: they said Ukraine's going to need more money by the end of the summer. And that's what's going to continue. Americans don't want it. Yes

Speaker 22: sir

Thank

Woman 19: you. Everybody needs the weekend to prepare. I'm not irresponsible. I care about my conference. I have been measured. I have given this time. I have given warning after warning after warning. And that's why we don't have to rush. We can do it next week. Also

Speaker 23: I

Speaker 11: think this is a somber decision for Mike Johnson. He deserves a weekend to think about it. He should resign because he knows what's coming next week. What's coming is

His

Speaker 11: sharing of power with Hakeem Jeffries. Now, I'm actually not going to concede that the vote will fail. I mean, I think Hakeem had to step out in front and get in front of this freight train because he was afraid he didn't have enough Democrats who would save Mike Johnson. I

don't think

Speaker 11: it's something he wanted to do because now it's going to happen. He is going to

Speaker 13: embrace Mike Johnson, and the question is

Will

Speaker 13: there be enough Democrats to overcome the Republicans

Speaker 24: About talking to folks in my district or I'm traveling across

Speaker 25: the country, the one phrase I hear over and over again, is keep fighting. Keep fighting

The

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): United States House of Representatives floor, that is complete surrender, doing nothing for our border, nothing for our border, but

Woman 4: securing the border of foreign countries. And continuing to fund the slaughter and the battlefields and the bombs and the horrific injuries and wiping out a full generation of Ukrainian men that will leave women as widows, children as orphans. I'm sorry, the American people don't want to pay for that. That's what Mike Johnson is for. We

Speaker 13: have people

Woman 4: yeah, go ahead

Speaker 13: So that charge is

Speaker 26: leveled from Mike Johnson against Marjorie Taylor Greene? You're saying that he said she's not a serious lawmaker? Is that right

In an interview last

Speaker 26: night. - Okay, in an interview last night. She's the most serious representative up here. If you listen to the speech that she just gave, she

Speaker 11: captured exactly what, Republicans back home are thinking. They are tired of this swamp. And what does it mean to Speaker Mike Johnson to be a serious lawmaker? Well, I think it means something different now than it meant six months ago or a year ago when he was a rank and file member. Because now to him being a serious lawmaker means betraying our conference. It means going with the majority of the Democrats and abandoning a majority of Republicans. I don't think that's a serious speaker. I also don't think it's a serious constitutionalist to cast the

Speaker 26: deciding vote on whether you need a warrant to spy on Americans and getting rid of the warrant provision

Speaker 27: So I think he needs to look in a mirror before he criticizes Ms. Marjorie Taylor Greene

Speaker 30: Well, you

Speaker 31: clearly listen To people more than this town That's exactly what

Woman 2: people are saying everywhere It's all over the internet and comments It's being said in coffee shops It's being said You go to the town square That's what people are talking about They're saying what is the difference What is the difference between Mike Johnson And Hakeem Jeffries People are saying that they see no difference There is no difference Because Mike Johnson Is sharing the gavel

Woman 4: They're holding it together Mike Johnson is not fighting. He's giving

Woman 2: Hakeem Jeffries full power. That's why Hakeem Jeffries has given him the biggest endorsement of his lifetime, and that is the last thing

Woman 19: that the American people wanted to see

By

Speaker 32: the way

Speaker 33: just on that point about sharing

Speaker 11: power, it wasn't just Hakeem Jeffries who endorsed Mike Johnson. It was their

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): whip, and it was their caucus chair. Their entire leadership team plans on getting a promotion in January. thanks to Mike Johnson. Where is our leadership team? They need to be as united as

Speaker 26: Hakeem's team is, and they need to surround Mike Johnson and say, Mike, it's time to leave

Speaker 34: Congresswoman, last time it took weeks for you all to coalesce around the speaker to even get somebody who wanted to be speaker. So who do you have in mind this time around to prevent Congress from shutting down and not doing its work again i'm

not

Speaker 37: naming names but i think we have people that are capable. Anybody that's willing to

Speaker 38: fight for our agenda. Anyone that refuses to share the power with Hakeem Jeffries. That's something that we're capable of doing if we decide

to do

Speaker 38: it. This Republican conference can do it. I have watched us do great things. Just as Thomas Massey said before they ousted Kevin McCarthy, we passed seven separate appropriation bills

We

Speaker 38: were passing incredible bills that lined up exactly with the reason why people voted for us. And once Mike Johnson took over, he completely stopped it all. We only had five left and he just let him go. No

Speaker 39: that's not

Speaker 38: what I said. I think he's moved on. What our conference is capable of doing. electing someone that is ready and willing to lead and I have full faith and confidence we can do it we just have to do it yes

Speaker 26: and listen also from the very beginning Mike Johnson has had the chance to save us from what happened in October look he is a lame duck he's not going to get reelected in January he's not going to lead us to any policy wins he's not going to cut any spending he is not even going to try That is

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): why Hakeem wants him to remain a speaker. So what should he do at this point? He should do what John Boehner did. Do you remember when John Boehner left? He gave us notice, and instead of

Speaker 26: not having a speaker, we allowed him to remain speaker while we did, as an extracurricular activity, elect another speaker. It wasn't like it was in October when we came in. We had to come in every day of every week, and we all had the same meeting, and we couldn't

We've

Speaker 40: collected co-sponsors, and that's why we're giving him one more weekend to think

Speaker 41: about it

Speaker 43: Yesterday, Watley was here making the pitch that doing this so close to an election would not be good for Republicans. Are you worried about kind of what Julie was saying about doing this so close to an

Speaker 44: election and we took three weeks last time that this could hurt Republicans come November

Speaker 8 (higher-pitched voice): It's like this man said, everyone's saying, "What's the difference?" There is no difference

Let me take it, let me take it

Speaker 45: Okay, just to be sure, I get that you don't want to name names as far as who you're thinking about right now, but the fact of the matter is you have

Speaker 46: Mike Johnson because Republicans didn't even have a group of names to begin with. So do you have some sort of short list in mind right now? Are you kind of mulling names? I mean, do you have at least a group of people that you're sort of thinking about? Well

Speaker 47: let's be honest. We have Mike Johnson because nobody hated Mike Johnson. Okay. There was nothing in his prior life or political or private that qualified him for this job

He is a

Speaker 47: lost ball and tall weeds. He is unequipped to negotiate with Chuck Schumer. And a lot of people have ideas about why he's betrayed us. I think it's just pretty simple. He's over his head. And so I would say there are at least a dozen members

of our

Speaker 47: conference who either politically or privately have done things in

Speaker 49: their life. that qualify them to lead, and I'd be willing to consider any of them. And we don't have a list

Speaker 50: What do you say to Republicans who are saying that you guys are playing me into the hands of Democrats, that this will cause chaos

Speaker 51: and disunity, and that they essentially released this statement to provoke you into doing exactly what you're doing. That

Speaker 38: little narrative that you echoed is a lie

And

Speaker 38: that comes from the Republican establishment that Republican voters are ready to take a sledgehammer to and destroy

Speaker 52: They're fed up with it. You want to know why? That's bullshit. It just is. A few weeks

Speaker 53: ago, Congressman Bussar said that he would

Speaker 54: support the motion to vacate. He's not here today. Do you still have a support? Oh

Speaker 55: yeah, absolutely. He just had another thing

he had

Speaker 55: to attend to. Yeah, absolutely

Speaker 56: You defended this motion to vacate, that you're respecting the conference by holding this back. But how do you explain, it took three weeks to elect Mike Johnson as a speaker. How do you explain risking another leadership crisis? I think that's

the

Speaker 57: same question that we've answered about four times now. Do you have a different question

By the

Speaker 47: way, I'll answer this again, even though it's been asked. This is the time to clean house, not in October, not in September when he betrays us with another CR or an increase, another omnibus. Now is the time to clean house. There is time. I mean, we're not even done with primaries yet. People aren't focused right now on their general elections. They're still trying to win their primaries. This is when we should take out the garbage, take out the trash, solve these problems that we have so that we can be a united conference so that we can have somebody in the chair who

Speaker 12 (higher-pitched voice): actually has a credible chance of winning speaker in January. Look, Hakeem and his cohorts, and

Speaker 47: colleagues, may bail out Mike Johnson next week. That remains to be seen, whether it's a bluff or not. But we know they're not going to vote for him in January. And we know that Mike Johnson can't get a majority of Republicans in January. Even our colleagues who aren't co-sponsors of this have privately admitted there is no way in hell they're going to vote for Mike Johnson to be speaker in January

And

Speaker 47: so that's why we need to handle it now. Put somebody in that seat who can lead our conference and present a united front to Republicans who are going

Speaker 49: to go vote in November

Are

Speaker 59: either of you considering running for speakers

Speaker 1 (higher-pitched voice): Everybody, we're going to end the press conference. What I'm calling on is, like my colleague here said, Mike

Woman 2: Johnson can do some really, he can pray about it, think about it all weekend, do the right thing and resign, giving our conference time to elect a new

president

Woman 2: new leader, a new Speaker of the House. He should reject the endorsement of Hakeem Jeffries and the entire Democrat leadership team. That is not an endorsement that any Republican speaker should ever want or embrace. And this vote will be called next week. And I would just want to urge all our colleagues to prepare for it. It's the right thing to do for America. It's time to clean house and get our conference in order and get ready to support President Trump's agenda. God willing, He wins. November and we take back full power here in Washington in January. Thank you very

Speaker 61: much everyone