Speaker of the House Mike Johnson twisted and turned in every direction as he humiliated himself to cover for Trump telling him to block the border bill.
Speaker Johnson claimed that President Biden has the executive authority to close the border right now, “The president has the authority right now. He doesn’t need another act of Congress. He could do it right now. But he’s unwilling to do it.”
Kristen Welker responded, “As you know, the White House has completely dismissed the allegation that in any way the migrants and surge of migrants have been intentional on the part of the president. In terms of him being able to take action right now, Mr. Speaker, you know as well as I do that an executive order would only be met by legal challenges. You have a chance to do something right now. The details we laid out are not rumors. That is based on negotiators who were in the room.”
Johnson said that Biden has executive authority to act on the border he is also demanding that the Senate pass and Biden sign H.R. 2, “And I have been absolutely clear from day one, since literally the next morning after being handed the gavel in late October, what the functional equivalence of H.R. 2, what those are, and why that was necessary to solve the problem. I took 64 House Republicans to the border in January. We heard from the people in charge, the border patrol agents, the people there. And they said, ‘These are the things that you must do to stem the flow. And the reason we have the biggest immigration catastrophe, border catastrophe in U.S. history is because President Biden took these actions.’ I can name them for you.”
Welker asked Johnson if Trump was calling the shots on the border deal, and he responded, “Of course not. He’s not calling the shot. I am calling the shots for the House. That’s our responsibility. And I have been saying this far longer than President Trump has. I have been saying what the requirements are to fix the problem. I don’t care if they call the legislation H.R. 2 or not. What we’re saying is you have to stem the flow. The president has executive authority right now. As Congress does this negotiation and the debate and the discussion, the president could stop it. Section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, the Supreme Court has already acknowledged gives the president broad executive authority –”
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Trump isn’t calling the shots. It is a coincidence that Speaker Johnson changed his position to everything that Trump wants. Mitch McConnell is apparently also lying when he said that Trump is directing Republicans to block the border bill because he wants to use the issue in the election.
Mike Johnson is Donald Trump’s puppet in the House. Johnson is willing to lose the House majority if thinks that doing so will get Trump back into the White House.
The whole interview was full of Johnson contradicting and humiliating himself to please Boss Trump.
The speakership has fallen so far since the Republican takeover of the House that one of Hakeem Jeffries‘s important duties will be restoring dignity and authority to the position if he becomes speaker next year.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
