Marjorie Taylor Greene accuses leftists of blackmailing Mike Johnson into doing their bidding

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is now suggesting that the left is blackmailing Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) into supporting its priorities, including “the trans agenda on children.” Johnson does not support transgender equality.

“Mike Johnson has completely changed his character in a matter of about five months after he has become speaker of the House,” Greene said on white nationalist Tucker Carlson’s online show.

Related:

Hypocrite Marjorie Taylor Greene broke a rule she loves to use against liberals

She also shouted at President Joe Biden during his State of the Union.

“Mike Johnson has made a complete departure of who he is, and what he stands for, and to the point where people are literally asking, is he blackmailed?” she continued. “What is wrong with him because he’s completely disconnected with what we want.”

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“I can’t comprehend, Tucker, what radically changes a man,” she said. “Let’s break that down. So Mike Johnson is pro-life. And the second part of the omnibus, just less than two weeks ago, he funded full-term abortion clinics, full-term abortion clinics!”

“He funded the trans agenda on children. I mean, how does that even happen from a Christian conservative Republican speaker?”

Full-term abortions aren’t a thing that happens, and the federal government is banned from funding abortion due to the Hyde Amendment. She is likely referring to funding for reproductive health clinics. That funding, however, can’t be used for abortions, but rather for other health care that those clinics provide.

As for the “trans agenda on children,” she is likely referring to grants and health care that the federal government was already paying for, including the military’s coverage of gender-affirming care for servicemembers and their families and grants to LGBTQ+ community centers.

Johnson has long opposed LGBTQ+ equality, and it seems unlikely that he will start supporting it soon.

Greene then attacked Johnson, saying he “funded the FBI… fully funded the Department of Justice,” which is “literally trying to put [Donald Trump] in jail the rest of his life.”

“We don’t know who Mike Johnson is anymore.”

The omnibus funding bill that Greene described was passed last month to fund the federal government to avoid a shutdown. The Senate and the White House are controlled by Democrats, while Republicans have a razor-thin majority in the House, so it was unlikely that far-right Republicans would be able to include all their legislative priorities in the bill.

Greene and other extreme Republicans refused to vote for a bill that had a chance of passing the Senate, which made Johnson get help from House Democrats to pass it.

Greene introduced a motion to oust Johnson as speaker last month, just before the House went into a two-week recess. She hasn’t said yet whether she will force a vote on the motion. Since all Democrats would likely vote to remove Johnson – Democrats usually don’t vote to support Republican speakers and vice versa – Johnson could be removed if as few as two Republicans vote to remove him. So Greene would only have to find one colleague to support her motion if she forces a vote on it.

The relevant exchange starts at about the 12:30 mark.