House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) celebrated Democrats seizing the House by unprecedentedly relying on the opposition party to force President Joe Biden’s priority of Ukraine border defense funds toward a full House vote on Saturday.
“We look forward to every member voting their conscience and their desire, and that is exactly how this process is supposed to work and how the house is supposed to operate,” Johnson told reporters on Friday after passing a rules bill. “So we’re happy to provide that.”
Democrats had a reason to bail Johnson out: he’s not former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “McCarthy was both incompetent and dishonest,” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI) said, but “Johnson is just incompetent.”
Johnson’s inexplicable decision to work with Democrats on passing Biden’s Ukraine agenda occurred twice over the course of two days:
- Thursday: Johnson made history by relying on Democrats on the House Rules Committee to overcome objections from the majority and advance a rule bill to the House floor.
- Friday: Democrats seized the House and helped Johnson clear a key procedural hurdle on the rule bill to set up Saturday’s floor vote. Voting “yes” were 165 Democrats and only 151 Republicans.
“This is the best possible product that we can get under these circumstances to take care of these really important obligations,” Johnson argued.
“We introduced the loan concept for the governmental assistance party to be provided in a loan instead of a gift,” he said about funding Ukraine’s border and not the U.S. border.
“Everyone can vote their will and their constituents’ desires on the Israel aid, the Ukrainian aid, the Indo Pacific, and then our fourth national security package,” Johnson said:
Immediately after Friday’s vote, GOP Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) signed on to the motion to vacate Johnson from the speakership, becoming the third member to do so, joining Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
“It’s official: @SpeakerJohnson is no longer the GOP Speaker of the House, but Speaker for the Uniparty’s $1.5T deficit, warrantless spying on Americans, and a foreign aid bill with more deficit spending than Schumer’s budget buster,” Sen. Rand Paul posted on X, sharing a New York Times article. The Times’ article underscored Johnson’s decision to essentially allow Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) to take control of the Republican-controlled House.
Johnson, who previously opposed funding Ukraine’s border, was flip-flopped on Ukraine aid by his top policy adviser, a former lobbyist whose clients include a number of major companies who have issued corporate statements indicating some kind of interest in the war, Breitbart News exclusively reported Wednesday:
Johnson’s policy director, Dan Ziegler, was–until he joined the Speaker’s office as his top policy aide when Johnson won the Speakership last year–a lobbyist with the firm Williams & Jensen. He had previously worked for Johnson in other capacities, but left Johnson to become a lobbyist and accumulated a client list that included several top companies–some of which seem to have a financial interest in seeing Congress pass Ukraine aid. The lobbying firm for which he worked represents a number of top companies. Lobbying disclosures reveal Ziegler represented many of these companies, including several that have made corporate statements about the war in Ukraine or issued press statements or other public guidance saying it could affect their business operations.
…
Ziegler is not the only one in Johnson’s inner circle who has issues. Several other staffers working for Johnson have a series of troubling developments in their backgrounds, and as of now it is unclear if the Speaker himself is aware of all of this or not. Either way, this raises serious questions about his management of the conference and his handling of major legislative proposals like the foreign aid plan before Congress this week–and it undercuts the explanation several Johnson apologists have offered up that he is just having a tough time managing a one-seat majority and things would not be different if he resigned and Republicans picked a new Speaker.
This Breitbart News investigation is the product of research of lobbying disclosures, interviews with a number of highly-connected insiders–most of whom would not speak on record for fear of reprisal–and aggressive questioning of the Speaker’s office and his staff, including questioning of top aides. Here, for the first time, is the inside story of how globalists undercut the America First movement from inside Speaker Johnson’s office, and how the Speaker himself has now authorized them to go scorched earth in attacks against any conservatives and supporters of former President Donald Trump who seek to hold him accountable and block the four-pronged foreign aid scheme he outlined on Monday evening and introduced on Wednesday. The Speaker intends to set up a Saturday evening vote in the House of Representatives on the plan that completely abandons border security and instead pushes to funnel tens of billions more U.S. tax dollars to foreign countries like Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. In a string of recent betrayals by the Speaker–the recent government funding plan and last week’s reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without a requirement for warrants for surveillance on American citizens–this one stings America First conservatives even more. Despite calls for his resignation from top conservative Republicans like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY)–who say they are prepared to vote to remove Johnson by force if necessary–Johnson has tripled down in moving forward on the matter, not just completely ignoring conservatives aligned with former President Donald Trump who are openly criticizing the effort, but authorizing staff and allies like House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) to attack them in order to achieve congressional passage of this radical agenda. McCaul, as Breitbart News reported earlier on Wednesday, launched an unhinged attack on Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) over Ukraine aid. McCaul is one of Johnson’s top allies and quickly endorsed Johnson’s foreign aid framework without even having read the plan because it had yet been introduced when he publicly backed it. A day later, finally, the Speaker’s office released bill text.
The House is expected to vote on Saturday.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.