Jeffries Suggests Democrats Would Save Johnson From Removal Over Ukraine Aid

The House Democratic leader said “a reasonable number” of Democrats would vote to save the Republican speaker if his party sought to oust him over allowing a vote on a foreign aid bill.

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Representative Hakeem Jeffries, right, said House Democrats had not formally discussed a so-called “motion to vacate” but that he believed some would vote to protect Speaker Mike Johnson from removal.

Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic leader, said on Wednesday that he believed “a reasonable number” of lawmakers in his party would protect Speaker Mike Johnson from removal from his post if he allowed a vote on a foreign aid bill that includes money for Ukraine and faced a Republican mutiny as a result.

Mr. Jeffries said House Democrats had not formally discussed whether they would help save Mr. Johnson if he suffered the same fate as Kevin McCarthy, the former speaker who faced a so-called motion to vacate that prompted a snap vote on whether to remove him. Mr. Jeffries, a New York Democrat, also said he had not discussed the matter with the speaker.

But in a wide-ranging interview, Mr. Jeffries went as far as he has publicly in addressing what Democrats might be willing to do to protect the top leader of the opposing party if Mr. Johnson were to defy right-wing Republicans and allow a vote on the $95 billion national security spending package, which includes more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine.

“It does seem to me,” Mr. Jeffries said, “based on informal conversations, that were Speaker Johnson to do the right thing relative to meeting the significant national security needs of the American people by putting it on the floor for an up-or-down vote, there will be a reasonable number of people in the House Democratic Caucus who will take the position that he should not fall as a result.”

Pressed on whether he was saying that Democrats would vote to rescue Mr. Johnson, Mr. Jeffries replied: “You can interpret it any way you want to interpret it.”

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the right-wing Georgia Republican, has said she would seek to depose Mr. Johnson were he to allow a vote on continuing to fund Ukraine.

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