Speaking in a powerful press conference in which he went absolutely nuclear on Democrats over the Schumer Shutdown, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) skewered the left for trying to hold America and Americans hostage with ridiculous spending demands in order to reopen the federal government.
For reference, that has been much the Republican complaint since the beginning of the shutdown, on October 1. Ever since Continuing Resolution talks broke down on September 30, when the Senate failed to pass such a temporary spending deal, Republicans have alleged that the Democrats refuse to agree to a spending deal that doesn’t include nonsense like hundreds of billions of healthcare spending for illegal aliens, which the GOP will not pass.
Declaring as much, Speaker Johnson skewered the Democrats for ignoring the fact that Republicans have put forth a “clean” spending package that doesn’t include partisan spending, arguing that they are taking advantage of that goodwill to hold America hostage. He began, “Republicans are not demanding anything, literally nothing. All we want is to reopen the government.”
He continued, “The Democrats are demanding all those things I just showed you on the chart, plus a lot more. When I say they want to send money to foreign countries, this is some of the things that that they would propose that we spend money on. Again, they’re demanding this as a ransom to reopen the government.”
Giving a few examples of the nonsense they want, in addition to the usual complaints of Republicans about illegal alien healthcare, he said, “Things like $4 million for global LGBTQI+ awareness campaigns around the world, $4 million for the LGBTQI+ democracy grants in the Balkans. They want $2 million for feminist democratic principles projects in Africa. We’re not doing that.”
He then argued that they are doing so because they are fearful of being outflanked to their left by radicals like AOC and Zohran Mamdani. “But again, the question is why? This sounds crazy. Why would they do this? And what we saw on vivid display over the weekend was the reemphasis of this fact. This is motivated purely out of fear,” he said.
He continued, explaining how they are thus holding Americans hostage and putting our national security at risk because of those radicals, saying, “And what do we mean by that? You saw the Democratic Leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, endorse Zohran Mamdani for Mayor of New York City on Friday. It was an illustration of what we’re facing here, that the Democrats right now fear the Far-Left activists more than they fear air traffic controllers, Border Patrol agents, American service members, and so many others missing their paychecks. They fear the Marxists insurgents like Mamdani more than they fear families and children going hungry from lapsed benefits that keep food on their tables.”
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Johnson also commented on how GOP policies are helping all productive Americans, and thus are leading to support from groups like unions for Republican candidates, saying, “What we’re asking for here is common sense. They’re supporting the party, they’re supporting the President, because they know who’s working for the American people and who is not, who is causing an inflicting pain on the American people. The contrast has never been more clear.”
He added, on that point, “We say all the time, this is not your father’s Democratic Party. I grew up in Louisiana. When I was a kid, I didn’t even know a Republican–literally everybody was Democrat. And you know, there’s Southern Democrats, Conservative Democrats down in Louisiana. That party doesn’t exist anymore. My grandfather would not recognize what this party has become…They’d all be Republicans because the Republicans stand on the side of common sense and working families, hardworking middle-class, lower-class earners in the country.”
He concluded, “We drafted the Working Families Tax Cut to be geared for them, to help them. And we infused the legislation with all this pro-growth policy so that all boats will rise. People see that. They see the effects. The policies and ideas that are advanced of the Republican Party are right for America because they comport with our founding principles and we stand on those principles to defend them. And by contrast, on the other side of the screen, they’re going for communism and Marxism.”
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video