Democrats see rescuing Speaker Johnson as best bet for Ukraine aid

A growing chorus of Democrats say promising to protect Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) from a budding conservative coup could be their best chance to secure military aid for Kyiv that has been stalled on Capitol Hill for months.

Johnson left Washington last week vowing to take up the explosive issue of foreign aid when lawmakers return in mid-April from a long holiday recess.

But hard-line conservatives in the GOP conference are firmly opposed to sending billions of dollars more to Ukraine, particularly if it’s not combined with efforts to secure the U.S.-Mexico border. And Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) has already filed a motion to oust the Speaker if he bucks the conservatives’ demands — a thinly veiled warning for Johnson to keep any form of Ukraine aid off the floor.

Democrats are increasingly stepping into this internal Republican clash, and many of them are vowing to shield Johnson from Greene’s motion to vacate if the Speaker acts on a Senate-passed foreign aid package, which includes $60 billion for Ukraine and billions more for Israel, Taiwan and humanitarian aid to Gaza.

“If the choice is between Ukraine aid and providing a vote to stop a motion to vacate, or no Ukraine aid, I think there’s a lot of Democrats who would be willing to assist in getting it done,” Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said Wednesday by phone.

Himes, the senior Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, was quick to stress he’ll support whatever approach is ultimately adopted by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), who has so far declined to say if he’d help rescue Johnson from a potential right-wing revolt. 

“We’re very conscious that we’re not going to freelance in such a way as to put Leader Jeffries in a bind,” Himes said.

But Himes also promoted the Johnson rescue strategy — an extraordinary two-step dance aligning the conservative Speaker with some of his Democratic critics — as the most viable option if Congress hopes to adopt Ukraine aid before November. The alternatives, including a pair of discharge petitions designed to force foreign aid to the floor, simply don’t have the bipartisan support to be successful, he said.

“I think it’s the only strategy,” Himes said. 

“For whatever reason, the 20 Republicans that I heard take blood oaths in Munich about … how we must do absolutely everything to get Ukraine aid passed — it turned out that ‘absolutely everything’ didn’t include signing a discharge petition,” he continued.

“So given the fact that ‘absolutely everything’ for lots of Republicans doesn’t include taking the massive political risk of signing a discharge petition — which nobody’s ever heard of half a mile away from the Capitol dome — I think that the Speaker putting the bill on the floor, and our insulating him from the tender mercies of Marjorie Taylor Greene, is probably the only option.” 

Some rank-and-file Democrats are already jumping on board.

Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.), a first-term representative and member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, told The Hill he will not support Greene’s motion to vacate under any circumstances — ”I will never side with Marjorie Taylor Greene ever. I will never turn the People’s House over to her” — but if another member tries to remove Johnson, he would be inclined to protect the Speaker if the ouster was prompted by moving aid for Ukraine.

“If you’re telling me Speaker Johnson comes out with a bill that’s going to stand by Ukraine and Israel, do humanitarian aid for … Palestinians in Gaza, and then there’s a motion to vacate him over that, no, I’m not gonna support that,” he added.

Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, said last month that “Democrats would support Johnson” if he moves the Senate’s national security supplemental. And Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) told The Hill last week he will “do whatever helps the Caucus’s priorities for our country,” but noted the ouster effort “may provide the best shot at getting needed aid to Ukraine.”

The Democrats’ approach to Johnson’s fate marks a sharp departure from the party’s sentiments toward his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who was removed from power in October with unanimous Democratic backing. A number of Democrats said afterward they had offered to help McCarthy survive the expulsion vote, but the cocksure California Republican declined. Relegated to backbencher status, he resigned from Congress in December.

McCarthy, for his part, denied the notion he turned away Democratic support. During an extensive exit interview in his Capitol hideaway shortly before he resigned from the House, the California Republican facetiously told reporters “I’m sure I didn’t ask” when pressed on Democratic claims that he did not request their help.

Speculation has swirled for weeks that Democrats — if faced with another GOP motion to vacate — would consider saving Johnson if he agrees to move aid for Ukraine. Although the Senate passed its foreign aid package with support from 70 senators, including 22 Republicans, Johnson has refused to consider the bill. The impasse has infuriated Kyiv’s supporters on both sides of the aisle, who say the aid is urgently needed given Ukraine’s waning weapons arsenal.

Last month, centrist Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) circulated a resolution that would make it more difficult for conservative hard-liners to oust Johnson from the top job, but made it contingent on the chamber staging a vote on legislation to send aid to Ukraine, Israel and other allies abroad.

As the House inches closer to another potential ouster of a sitting Speaker, that speculation has kicked into overdrive.

“I’m certain that there is a huge number of folks, including me, that will have just about any conversation to ensure that we get this national security supplemental done,” Rep. Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) told The Hill when asked about saving Johnson in exchange for moving Ukraine aid.

Greene, to be sure, has not yet forced a vote on her motion to vacate — she only filed the resolution Friday — and she has not indicated when she plans to pull the trigger, saying it will be a “rolling issue.”

But the firebrand Republican strongly suggested the battle over Ukraine aid could get the ball rolling on her effort to oust Johnson, telling reporters the Speaker “should not bring funding for Ukraine” to the floor when asked last week if moving assistance for Kyiv would prompt a vote on her resolution.

Other hard-line conservatives are sounding a similar note, though none have publicly joined Greene in calling for Johnson’s ouster.

“The Speaker of the House should not put a Ukraine bill on the floor unless, or until, we have meaningful reforms to deal with our wide-open border. And we’ve been very clear about that. And I think that it will be very clear to the Speaker that that would be a mistake, to go down that road, and our job is to make that clear,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said Wednesday in an interview on John Fredericks’s radio show.

Heading into next month’s debate, Johnson has floated a vague outline of his plan, telling Senate Republicans the House will move its own Ukraine package and send it back to the upper chamber. But the details of his strategy remain unclear, as does the question of how many Republicans would support his removal if his efforts triggered a vote on a motion to vacate. 

Himes, for his part, predicted the number of Democrats willing to jump across the aisle to keep Johnson in power would be plenty to save the Speaker — if he ensures passage of the disputed foreign aid.

“So long as [Leader Jeffries] is … OK with this strategy, I think we’ll provide however many [votes] are needed,” he said. “My own guess would be — how many members are there of Marjorie Taylor Greene’s merry band? Fifteen? Twenty?

“We could easily provide that number in a motion to vacate.”