US House Speaker Johnson survives ouster attempt by Greene, future uncertain

US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson on Thursday survived an attempt to push him out, however, he still faces an uncertain future as leader of a Republican caucus that is locked in a civil war, reports Reuters.

Johnson was a lesser-known member of the House of Representatives until October, when he emerged from the struggling leadership fight that followed his predecessor’s ouster in the powerful role of top Republican in Congress, and second in line to the presidency after the vice president.

On Wednesday, he survived an attempt made by hardline Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene to remove him as Speaker, with the support of most of his party’s 217-213 House majority and from Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Many Democrats also voted for Mike Johnson to avoid a repeat of the October chaos.

After winning the speaker’s gavel, Johnson dropped the narrow views of a relatively untried congressman from northwest Louisiana, serving his fourth term in the House of Representatives, and embraced the political realities of national leadership.

The evolution has angered more than enough party hardliners to seriously diminish his chances of remaining the Republican House leader next year, regardless of whether the party holds the majority in the November 5 presidential election.

When he won the speaker’s gavel last October, the 52-year-old was viewed as an inexperienced yet likeable candidate with no political rivals, who opposed the US aid to Ukraine, favored strict border restrictions, and brought a strong Christian conservative record to culture war issues like abortion.

Johnson had also played a leading role in House Republican objections to the 2020 presidential election results, following Trump’s false claims that he lost to Joe Biden because of vote fraud. Claims such as these, and the support they drew from Republicans in Congress, led to the deadly January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.