House Speaker Mike Johnson took off the gloves on live TV, hitting back at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene after she accused GOP leaders of “hurting people” by letting Affordable Care Act subsidies lapse during the shutdown fight. Pressed by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Greene’s charge that Republicans had “no plan,” Johnson didn’t flinch, stating that: “Well, bless her heart, that’s an absurd statement,” he said in the video, adding that Republicans will not air strategy on calls “monitored by media.”
The split-screen moment captured the GOP’s latest family feud, a conservative firebrand torching her own leadership and the Speaker trying to project control. Johnson argued that substantive policy work is happening behind closed doors, not on a partywide conference line with hundreds listening. Collins read Greene’s post aloud before Johnson batted it away as “absurd.”
Greene has been breaking with leadership for weeks as the shutdown grinds on. She has blasted Republicans for failing to shield families from soaring premiums if ACA tax credits expire and has taken her case outside the Capitol, sitting for interviews and social clips that needle her own party’s approach. Local coverage in Georgia noted she was “absolutely disgusted” by the lack of a concrete plan, a line that ricocheted through conservative media and Washington press galleries alike.
At the same time, Greene has crossed wires with leadership on another political third rail — the Jeffrey Epstein files. She stood alongside Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie at a bipartisan press conference with Epstein survivors, urging a vote to force the release of unclassified records. The rare alliance put added heat on the Speaker’s office, which has argued that ongoing committee work makes a floor mandate unnecessary.
Johnson’s CNN appearance tried to compartmentalize all of it, the policy fight over health care subsidies, the shutdown blame game, the backbench rebellion. He defended the idea that Republicans are developing an approach to health costs and suggested Greene is not looped into every detail, a reality of committee jurisdictions and closed-door talks. The point, for viewers at home, was simple: the Speaker says there is a plan, it just is not going to be hashed out on a conference call that will be on the front page the next morning.
Greene’s pressure campaign is unlikely to fade. She has used CNN hits, podcasts, and a barrage of social posts to argue that Republicans are about to let premiums jump on their watch; a message that resonates far beyond her district. Clips of her breaking with the party on the subsidies fight have spread quickly, fueling headlines about GOP infighting and scrambling leadership’s attempts to keep the focus on Democrats.
Meanwhile, the Epstein transparency push keeps gathering signatures and cameras. The survivors’ appeal and the Massie-Khanna effort mark a rare split inside Trump’s coalition as activists demand the files Trump previously suggested he would release. Greene’s presence only sharpens the contrast with leadership’s go-slow stance, and it provides another venue for her to jab the Speaker over accountability.
For now, Johnson is betting that process and private talks can tamp down the drama. But the viral CNN moment showed how quickly the Speaker’s message can be hijacked. Collins read Greene’s critique in real time, Johnson shot back with a genteel Southern put-down, and the GOP’s rift over health care and transparency was suddenly the headline.
