Johnson says he’s texted with Rep. Greene, plans to talk next week

Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) said Sunday that he exchanged text messages with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) earlier in the day and said he plans to meet with Ms. Greene early next week to address her concerns. He said he plans to discuss.

The meeting came after Mr Green submitted a motion to resign against Mr Johnson more than a week ago, taking the first step toward ousting him as chairman. At the time, Greene described the motion as a warning to Johnson after he worked across the aisle on a spending plan that would avoid a partial government shutdown.

“Look, Marjorie Taylor Greene filed a motion. It’s not a privileged motion, so it doesn’t move automatically. It’s just hanging there. And she’s frustrated. She and I filed a motion today. But we exchanged text messages. We’re going to talk early next week,” Johnson said in an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Night in America with Trey Gordy.”

Johnson stressed that while he agreed with Greene on some issues, he defended the agreement on the spending bill that ultimately avoided a partial government shutdown. Green cited the spending package in his decision to file the eviction motion.

“Marjorie is a friend. She’s very unhappy about, for example, the last spending bill. Guess what? As we discussed, so am I, Trey,” Johnson said, addressing the anchor directly. “These aren’t perfect bills that you and I and Marjorie could write differently. But we’re going to end up with some of the tightest margins in American history, and sometimes bills that we don’t like.”

Johnson reiterated his commitment to the Republican conference, but said internal disagreements would favor Democrats.

“I think all of my other Republican colleagues recognize that this is a diversion from our mission. Again, the mission is to save the republic. And the only one who can do that is… The way is to increase the House majority, win the Senate and win the White House. So we don’t need a disagreement at this point,” he said.

“And the Democrats know that if we don’t all come together with a razor-sharp majority, we can have a good negotiating position. That’s why there were some things we didn’t like. Now we… He fought like a warrior-poet to keep parts of the Senate budget and parts of the Senate budget out of the bill.

He said turmoil within the party has made it difficult to gain influence with Democrats, which is why the spending package that ultimately averted a partial shutdown was not perfect.

“We’ve managed to get rid of a lot of terrible things, but some of them have survived. That’s what Marjorie is upset about, and so am I. But… I look forward to speaking with her about reforming the budgeting and spending process in the future. That’s what the Republican Party is for. If we all come together, this can create transformative change,” Johnson said.