Republican firebrand Marjorie Taylor Green speculated that Mike Johnson, GOP member and current Speaker of the House, must be being blackmailed, considering how much his views have changed since he took the post.
During a conversation on Tucker Carlson Uncensored, the Georgia congresswoman—who has become an unabashed in her criticism of Speaker Johnson—said that the Speaker’s character has completely changed, which makes her think he’s being blackmailed. Johnson, she said, claims to be conservative and a Christian, yet he has exerted great effort towards passing billions of dollars in Ukraine aid and a $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill last month, both of which contradict his previous publicly avowed convictions.
This radical change, Greene said, has people whispering about the possibility of blackmail behind the scenes in Congress.
Greene offered no concrete evidence to substantiate her speculations, and when asked by Carlson if she thought Johnson was actually being blackmailed, she desisted, claiming to have “no idea.”
This line of rhetoric is a turnabout for Greene, who was a key supporter of Johnson’s campaign for the speaker’s gavel after his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from the position. Her change of heart is so profound that she introduced a motion to oust Johnson from his position last month. She also took Jonson to task over his attempt to push a vote on the $95 billion Ukraine aid package, which the Senate passed last month.
Johnson intends to bring the bill to a vote once Congress returns from Easter recess.
Border policy has also been a bone of contention between Johnson and Green. On X the first week of April, Greene said that when Johnson oversaw the approval of the spending bill, which included funding for President Biden’s current border policy, Johnson “completely surrendered” the power of House Republicans to oppose the flood of illegal criminals
In response to a request for comment by Newsweek, Johnson’s office did not reply.
