House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) discussed some of what he spent “hours” talking about with former President Donald Trump during a visit to the latter’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Friday amid a motion by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to vacate his chair.
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In an interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Johnson discussed government funding, President Joe Biden’s porous border, and where Trump is on these and other pressing issues.
“So, Maria, what Marjorie fails to notice is that we have been fighting on the border. We fight on it every day,” he began.
“We passed our comprehensive border security package, H.R.2, at the very beginning of this Congress. It’s been sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk. We passed all the resolutions. We pass these acts out of the House, and they get stopped in the Senate,” Johnson continued (video below)
“See, the open-borders Democrats control the Senate and the White House, obviously. So, we have not been able to have a lawmaking exercise to meet that critical objective, but we’re fighting every day. That’s why we have been demanding that President Biden use his executive authority to seal that border.” he continued.
“President Trump reiterated that demand at our press conference together on Friday. We need the White House to step up. In the meantime, Congress has to fulfill its obligations,” he said. “If we had shut the government down, Maria, in that appropriations process, that would have been on us.
“Because, remember, the White House controls the pain that’s inflicted on the American people when the government shuts down. Imagine TSA agents not being paid and flights being canceled for Americans. Imagine Border Patrol agents not being paid and those open borders, the responsibility for that being shifted to us,” Johnson noted.
“Imagine troops not being paid at this dangerous time. So that simply wasn’t an option for us. It would have reflected badly on us, and it would not have been helpful in our mission to grow—keep and grow the House majority, win back the Senate, and win back the White House for President Trump so that we can save this country. That’s what’s at stake right now, and the party is 100 percent united on that agenda,” he said.
Bartiromo then asked Johnson if Trump talked about the situation with Greene.
“I spent hours with the president on Friday. He and I talk frequently, many times, usually in a week. We have had a long relationship. He’s 100 percent with me. And he said we will get this job done,” he said.
“That’s a distraction. What Marjorie’s done with the motion to vacate is not helpful for our party, for our mission to save the country, because if we don’t grow the House majority, keep the House majority, win the Senate, and win back the White House for President Trump, we’re going to lose the republic,” said the Speaker.
Johnson concluded: “What we need to do right now — and we will be — our party needs to stay united. We need to go out and tell the American people how we will be different, not just what we’re against, but what we’re for, what our agenda is going to be and how we’re going to turn this country around. I’m absolutely bullish on the election cycle. I think we’re going to do that.”
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