Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is taking heat from her own party after her effort to oust House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was soundly defeated.
On Wednesday, Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) called the push “idiotic.”
“Moscow Marjorie has lost her mind, clearly the result of the space laser,” he added. “There needs to be consequences, including the loss of committee assignments.”
His comment refers to a 2018 Facebook post from Greene in which she suggested a wildfire in California was started by a “laser beam or a light beam” from space.
Watch the video below:
Republicans are furious w/ MTG for forcing speaker ouster vote & now calling for consequences.
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) May 9, 2024
LAWLER — “Moscow Marjorie has lost her mind, clearly the result of the space laser.”
MOLINARO — “This pathetic rerun of an awful, syndicated TV series needs to come to a close.” pic.twitter.com/ScX5WK3cDR
Meanwhile, Rep. Marc Molinaro (R-N.Y.) said, “This pathetic rerun of an awful, syndicated TV series needs to come to a close.”
“I think ultimately their needs to be accountability. Some people here think they’re more important than everyone else, they are not,” he added.
Greene had been leading the push to oust Johnson from the job after he paved the way for the passage of aid packages for Ukraine and Israel.
However, in a 359-43 vote, the House voted to table Greene’s motion to vacate the chair as Democrats joined Republicans to vote against it.
After the vote, Johnson said, “I want to say that I appreciate the show of confidence for my colleagues to defeat this misguided effort.”
“I’ve made clear here every day, I intend to do my job, I intend to do what I believe to be the right thing, which I was elected to do. And I’ll let the chips fall where they may,” he added.
CNN notes, “House Republicans were completely caught off guard by Greene’s decision to trigger her motion, multiple Republican sources told CNN. GOP leadership did not see this coming and thought after the two productive meetings between Johnson and Greene that there was at least more time before any next steps were taken, the sources added.”
