Hakeem Jeffries demands GOP 'isolate the extreme MAGA Republicans' in exchange for Dems backing Mike Johnson against MTG's attempted ouster

Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) spoke about how Democrats want the GOP to "isolate" what he called "extreme MAGA Republicans" in exchange for backing House Speaker Mike Johnson from an ousting attempt.  

Jefferies was asked about what he wanted in return for helping Johnson be saved from the motion to vacate from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene on Wednesday.  

"The only thing we ask of our House Republican colleagues is for traditional Republicans to further isolate the extreme MAGA Republican wing of the GOP, which has visited nothing but chaos and dysfunction on the American people," Jeffries responded.  

He characterized the more conservative wing of the party as "pro-Putin" and as "performance artists." 

On Wednesday, a majority of Democrats as well as Republicans voted to table and effectively kill a motion from Greene to vacate House Speaker Johnson. Democratic leadership previously said that they would support Johnson from any ousting effort brought by Greene. The vote to table the motion to vacate ended with 359 to 43 voting in favor to table the bill, with 7 voting present. 

Greene filed the motion originally in March, amid the House passing a $1.2 trillion spending package to fund the government for the rest of fiscal year 2024. Thomas Massie later backed Green's motion publicly.  

Former President Donald Trump, for his part, did not agree with the motion to vacate Johnson amid Wednesday's vote, but said that many things needed to be going differently in Congress when it came to legislation. 

Few Republicans and Democrats voted against tabling the bill. 11 in the GOP voted against tabling the motion and 32 Democrats did the same.