Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson says that it is not
a negotiation,
but rather a conversation he's having with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor
Green and her hard right allies in the House.
This over policy demands, they say must soon be met
in order to stave off Green's threat to oust Johnson
as Speaker,
including no more aid to Ukraine and the defunding of
Special Counsel Jack Smith's probes of Donald Trump.
Joining us now, NBC News political contributor and Punch Bowl
News Co founder Jake Sherman.
Jake, welcome. It's good to see you.
So Mike Johnson almost laughed off the idea that he
was under a deadline from Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green and
her allies to concede to their demands.
Or else. Here's Johnson with you yesterday.
Let's play that.
She doesn't have much hearing.
She's been paraphrasing, or she wants to hear an answer
soon.
Or something like that.
Look,
I'm going to, we're going to process these ideas just
like we do all ideas and all input from members
and and
this is not a negotiation.
I'm doing my job and and one of the part
of the job is taking suggestions of thoughtful ideas from
members and that's what we're doing.
My mind was at an eye roll that we detected,
but Jean promised, Green rather promised that this was the
week that she's going to push for a vote to
vacate and now she seems to have a struck a
a somewhat softer tone apart from her deadline of course.
So what's the latest on this and does any legit
threat to remove Johnson still exist?
Great to see you too,
Alex. Let's start with the last question first.
There is no threat that Mike Johnson will lose his
job.
I mean, maybe one in 100 Democrats have already given
up the game and said basically we're going to back
you
to Mike Johnson if if Marjorie Taylor Green moves against
you.
So that gives that gives Mike Johnson the leeway to
really not pay attention to Marjorie Taylor Green any more
than he's paying attention to any other House Republican.
As you saw in that clip right there,
when I asked him about that deadline,
he basically said, listen, I'm listening to Marjorie Taylor Grain.
I listen to all different members.
This is not a negotiation.
I appreciate her suggestions and that's why there's no threat.
And some of these suggestions,
Alex, are just not feasible,
right? He's not going to be able to strip money
from Jack Smith, the special counsel who's investigating Donald Trump,
because that would never get through the Senate,
that would never get to the White House and be
signed by Joe Biden.
It's a pipe dream. So
there are some lawmakers, Alex,
up here who live in a reality that's detached from
the world that we live in.
And that's what we're seeing with with Miss
Green's requests here. For the most part.
They're just not. They're not part of the reality that
we're all living in.
Yeah. And and add also defunding the aid to Ukraine
to to that list.
So let's talk about where former President Donald Trump factors
into all this,
because included in these demands from Green and her cohorts
is the defunding of Special Counsel Jack
Smith's probes of former President Trump,
which Trump has of course endorsed.
Trump is also, according to reports,
made it very clear that he doesn't want any more
GOP infighting over Speaker Battle six months now before the
election.
It's not a good look.
So what can you tell us about Trump's impact on
these talks?
Well, first of all, there's probably no one in the
House of Representatives who reveres and looks up to Trump
as much as Marjorie Taylor Greene does.
I don't think, Alex, that Donald Trump has some sort
of special affinity for Mike Johnson.
As much as he doesn't want a distraction,
as he already has enough distractions being in the middle
of of several criminal investigations and a court trial,
he doesn't want any distractions on Capitol Hill that could
further fracture the Republican Party.
He wants to win. And and this he sees this
as just frankly that a distraction in his chances to
win the presidency.
But listen I I I think there's no doubt that
Trump has been dispositive and has helped Johnson in this
instance by basically telling if not telling Green to back
off certainly not voicing support for the motion to vacate.
And quite honestly, Mike Johnson himself has wrapped himself in
Donald
Trump's cloak, so to speak,
and has been at Mar A Lago went to his
donor retreat last weekend
is is pushing bills at his at his behest.
So this is not there is no daylight effectively between
Donald Trump and Mike Johnson on almost any issue right
now.
Jake, you also note that the new Republican chair of
the House Appropriations Committee now says nonprofits can no longer
receive federal earmarks.
And that's a move that some Democrats are saying,
look, it specifically is targeting pro LGBTQ organizations in a
further continuation of House GOP culture wars.
It's using the federal budget to defend
rather defund initiatives that they just don't like.
Do you expect Republicans to use next year's spending bills?
Are they going to continue fighting these same culture war
provisions that they did all this last year?
Yeah, Alex, absolutely. I mean,
I don't think there's any question about that.
I think that that the majority of House Republicans,
or at least a vocal majority,
wants them to keep fighting these battles that they can't
win over things like reproductive rights,
abortion, LGBTQ
services. And I think to be honest with you,
in a in a Washington that's controlled 2 out of
3 branches of the governing
coalition, the White House and the Senate are controlled by
Democrats,
none of these things could get through.
And some of these, there was some controversy over the
last government funding bill that some LGBTQ service centers in
places like I think Pennsylvania had gotten here.
Those have to be stripped at the last minute in
order for the government not to shut down.
And what Republicans are saying is,
listen, we need to keep these strictly focused on
governments and organizations that we can vet
it. But yes, I think they're going to keep fighting
these culture wars,
undoubtedly. And I think it's even going to be heightened
now that there is some conservative discontent with Mike Johnson.
OK, Jake Sherman, always a good conversation with you.
Thank you so much.