Marjorie Taylor Greene defends Putin as she lays into Johnson ahead of Trump meeting

U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) speak to one another

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene laid into Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Friday, criticising his support for a legislative package that includes funding for Ukraine and accusing him of bothering Donald Trump by meeting with him.

Speaking with Steve Bannon on his show War Room, Ms Greene said that Mr Johnson supporting a US spending bill that would send funding to Ukraine made her “stomach flip over”.

“The American people are the ones writing the cheque and I absolutely hate everybody here doing this,” Ms Greene said. “I mean I seriously hate them for doing this for the American people and paying for the murder and slaughter of the people in Ukraine.”

Ms Greene, a member of the far-right faction of the House of Representatives, is a vocal opposer of sending any funding to Ukraine. Last month, when the House passed a spending bill – in part to keep the government from shutting down – she filed a motion to vacate Mr Johnson.

The Georgia representative downplayed the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, saying that the Russian president Vladimir Putin has not said he will invade other parts of Europe and therefore the US should not get involved.

“Vladimir Putin has not said he wants to go march across Europe and take Europe and the reality is Ukraine is not even a Nato member nation,” Ms Greene added.

Her views echo that of her close ally, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He has pushed for a more isolationist foreign policy stance and said he would negotiate a deal to end the Ukraine war, even if it means giving Russia a portion of land.

But Ms Greene and Mr Trump’s stance on Ukraine is unpopular among the majority of Congress and deviates from Mr Johnson’s goal of getting the funding package passed.

Mr Johnson is meeting with Mr Trump on Friday to make an “election integrity” announcement but the men’s differing opinions of Ukraine may come up during questions.

When asked what advice she had for Mr Trump ahead of the meeting with Mr Johnson, Ms Greene said the former president should be focusing on his campaign and his upcoming criminal trials – the first of which will begin on Monday.

“He doesn’t need to be worrying about what Mike Johnson is trying to talk him into,” Ms Greene said.

The Georgia representative accused Mr Johnson of “trying to saddle up” to the former president because “he’s scared of a motion to vacate”.

Ms Greene previously said her motion to vacate was just a “warning” to Mr Johnson for now. But tensions between Mr Johnson and the far-right faction have been heating up and they could try to remove him.

Kevin McCarthy found himself in a similar situation last year when Florida representative Matt Gaetz successfully invoked the motion to vacate.

Should the motion move to a vote, several Democrats said they would oppose the motion to save Mr Johnson but only if Mr Johnson moves forward with Ukraine aid.

“They know I mean exactly every single word I say and I’m not full of s*** just like Mike Johnson is and I’m actually going to follow through with action instead of lie to people on television,” Ms Greene said.

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