Far-right House Republicans including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who filed a motion to vacate House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) earlier in the month, do not approve of Johnson’s new foreign aid plan.
Johnson has proposed bringing four separate foreign aid bills — Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan each get their own bill, with the fourth bill focusing on national security priorities — for House members to vote on this week.
Greene said: “I am firmly against the plan as it stands right now.”
U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT), who negotiated the $95 billion bipartisan foreign aid bill which the Senate passed in February — and which Johnson “refuses”(Murphy’s word) to have his members vote on — is also critical of Johnson’s new four-bill plan. Murphy called it “a recipe for purposeful failure.”
Oh, give me a break! https://t.co/S825B8SxNF
— Gen Michael Hayden (@GenMhayden) April 16, 2024
When Johnson announced the new segmented foreign aid plan at a press conference, the Speaker said: “We are in unprecedented times, we’re in dangerous times.” He added, “I regard myself as a wartime Speaker, I mean in a literal sense, we are.”
Johnson referred to praise he received from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) on social media. According to Johnson, Gingrich said: “This is the hardest challenge faced by a Speaker probably in the history of the country, the moment we’re in right now. He said, arguably, maybe comparable to the Civil War but maybe worse.”
Former Director of the CIA and the National Security Agency, retired U.S. Air Force General Michael Hayden voiced his disapproval of Johnson’s dramatic political rhetoric and replied “Oh, give me a break!”