Hinson calls bid to oust House Speaker “ridiculous, embarrassing”

WASHINGTON — North-central Iowa congresswoman Ashley Hinson says this week’s attempt by far-right Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene to remove House Speaker Mike Johnson was ridiculous and embarrassing. 

Hinson says,  “Plain and simple, we should be focusing on legislating. We should be focusing on moving our conservative agenda forward in the House, and we can’t do that when we have members who are frankly grandstanding. I looked at Marjorie Taylor Greene, and she’s dragging this process out, and then going out to the cameras and fundraising off of it. I think that’s not what we should be doing right now. I think we should be instead legislating, holding the Biden administration accountable for the pain they’re causing Americans every single day. So we lost an hour on the floor when we have very limited time to debate and move legislation forward.”

Hinson says Greene’s move this week weaponized the process of dealing with House leadership. “I do believe in having a mechanism to hold our leadership accountable, but I don’t believe in having that mechanism weaponized, which is what the lady from Georgia has done. At this point, there would be broad bipartisan support to change that rule where one person can have a motion to vacate the chair and essentially throw our country back into chaos.”

Hinson says it disenfranchises the ability for her to have a voice for her constituents.  “I represent about 800,000 people, and any time things are slowed down or halted like that, it stops the ability to move legislation forward for Iowans. I think we need to get back to work and focus on passing good conservative legislation so we can prove to the American people we deserve to govern.”

Only 10 Republicans joined Greene’s bid to remove Johnson as House Speaker, with the overall vote being 359-43 for Johnson to keep his job.