All posts tagged "mike johnson"

Donald Trump wants to destroy one particular Republican lawmaker, and GOP leaders aren't going to stand in the president's way, according to CNN's new reporting.

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie has been making waves from within the Republican party, most recently in connection with his push to force the DOJ to disclose all of its files on disgraced financier and convicted child sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein. Trump has vowed to support GOP candidates who want to oppose Massie, and CNN reports that Mike Johnson won't interfere.

"Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team are sending their clearest signals to date that their conservative colleague will have to fend for himself as Trump’s allies prepare to dump millions into Massie’s district to purge him from the Northeastern Kentucky district he’s represented for nearly 13 years," the outlet reported on Sunday. "In interviews with CNN, five members of House GOP leadership declined to offer their backing for Massie’s reelection bid – and Johnson would not say if he’d support his colleague."

According to the report, Johnson "admonished Massie for undercutting his party’s agenda – as the libertarian-minded Republican intensifies his furious battle to force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and derides Trump’s signature domestic policy achievement for driving up the national debt."

The piece also quotes Johnson himself as saying, "He is actively working against his team almost daily now and seems to enjoy that role. So he is, you know, deciding his own fate." The outlet characterized the statement as "a firm message that party leaders would not intervene to protect Massie in the escalating feud with Trump."

CNN continues:

"The lack of support among House GOP leaders is a reflection of months of mounting frustration with the Kentucky Republican as he’s personally antagonized both the speaker and president in a series of fights – most recently in trying to force a vote on a bill to release the Epstein files over intense opposition from Johnson and the White House. Massie needs the support of just five other Republicans – along with all Democrats – to put the bill on the floor, but he remains two GOP signatures short."

Read the full report right here.

CNN's John Berman describes the reaction from House Speaker Mike Johnson when he was asked about Ghislaine Maxwell.

The Louisiana Republican appeared Friday morning on "CNN News Central," where Berman asked him about Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewing the Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator, who was subsequently transferred to a minimum-security prison camp after saying she had never witnessed President Donald Trump behaving inappropriately with women or girls of any age.

"When I asked Johnson about Ghislaine Maxwell, I read back a quote from Maxwell's interview," Berman said. "You could actually see his face turn. I mean, he really could not possibly hold her in lower regard, so he told me he discounts everything she says. But he also went on to say some interesting things about what might happen in Congress, because there is this discharge petition that could ripen in the next few weeks from Congressman [Thomas] Massie, from your home state of Kentucky, and also [Rep.] Ro Khanna from California, and what was interesting is he really was evasive on it."

"Speaker Johnson really seems to think that maybe the conditions have changed, maybe that won't be something that's followed through with with 218 signatures," Berman said. "So stand by for that, he won't give a solid answer."

The House speaker also declined to give a solid answer on the president's call for a sweeping crime bill, including billions of dollars of new funding for law enforcement in Washington, D.C., where Trump has called in the National Guard to help patrol the streets, and Berman asked why troops weren't deployed to Johnson's hometown of Shreveport, which has a much higher crime rate.

"It is interesting to hear the way Speaker Johnson does talk about that, because the only cities where President Trump has talked about sending National Guard are in states run by Democrats," Berman said. "There are high crime cities in states run by republicans like Louisiana, like Tennessee, Nashville and Memphis, have higher crime rates, but you don't hear the administration or senior Republicans talk about sending the National Guard there."

Watch below or click the link here.

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom ripped into House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) Friday following the GOP leader’s appearance on Fox News where he failed to directly address claims that his own state’s murder rate was far higher than California’s amid his support for President Donald Trump’s federal takeover of Washington, D.C.

Johnson appeared on Fox News Friday where he was asked to respond to comments made by Newsom on Thursday, where the California governor pointed out that Johnson’s home state and district had a far-greater murder rate than California’s, suggesting the speaker of hypocrisy amid his support for Trump’s D.C. takeover, and pledge to do the same in other Democrat-run cities.

“If he is to invest in crime suppression, I hope the president would look at the facts; just consider Speaker Johnson's state and district,” Newsom said Thursday during a press conference. “The murder rate [is] nearly four-times higher than California's in Louisiana.”

Asked to respond, Johnson immediately went after Newsom’s character, and went on to speak more generally about his party’s plans to address crime more broadly.

“Gavin Newsom will do anything for attention; he can name-drop me all that he wants, he needs to go and govern his state and not be engaging in all of this,” Johnson said.

“Look, we have crime in cities all across America, and we're against that everywhere and we need to bring policies to bear. My hometown of Shreveport has done a great job of reducing crime, gradually, but we've got to address it everywhere that it rears its ugly head.”

Newsom, responding to a clip of Johnson’s comments posted on social media, derided his answer as a “word salad.”

“This is what you call a WORD SALAD,” Newsom wrote in a social media post on X Friday.

Shreveport ranked 18th on 24/7 Wall Street’s “America’s 25 Murder Capitals” list and remains among the nation’s most violent cities, with a murder rate of 21.4 per 100,000 residents, and a violent crime rate of 949 per 100,000. Newsom has criticized Johnson in the past for his continued support of Trump’s federal takeover targeting Democrat-run cities given his own state’s problems with violent crime.

Nevertheless, Johnson continued to voice his support for Trump’s federal takeover, and went as far as to suggest that residents of cities Trump has floated for additional federal takeovers, such as Chicago, would welcome the deployment of federal officers and National Guard members to patrol their city’s streets.

“I think every major city in the country, the residents of those cities are open to that, anxious to have it, and we're the party that's going to bring that forward,” Johnson said.

Watch the video below or use this link.

As Congress nears a Sept. 30 deadline to pass a stopgap funding measure and avoid a government shutdown, one GOP lawmaker is already signaling defiance of House leadership.

That lawmaker is Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who has often clashed with House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and President Donald Trump – not only over spending, but also over his push to unseal documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, which both Johnson and Trump have sought to block.

“Congress will likely pass a continuing resolution by Sept. 30, but what is a continuing resolution?” Massie wrote on X early Friday morning.

“A continuing resolution is a copy of last year’s omnibus spending bill. But since Congress passed a continuing resolution last year (FY25), this year’s continuing resolution (FY26) is a copy of the omnibus (FY24) of (former President Joe) Biden’s last year. I’ll vote no.”

Continuing resolutions have become far more frequent in recent years as partisan divides among lawmakers have deepened, making it harder for Congress to agree to regular appropriations bills that are needed to fund the government each year. Massie, among the more fiscally conservative members of Congress, has often clashed with GOP leadership over spending, which, despite the rhetoric of Republican leadership, has continued to climb every year.

Massie’s fight with Republican leadership over spending came to a head over Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is projected to increase the federal deficit by around $3.4 trillion over ten years, per the Congressional Budget Office. Massie was among the two House Republicans that voted no on the measure, drawing scorn from the White House.

“There’s a conservative school of thought that says if we would just keep passing continuing resolutions, we’d spend the same dollars each year, so government spending would effectively go down due to inflation,” Massie continued. “The problem with that theory is (that) Congress inserted FY26 spending increases in the OBBBA.”

Massie went on to draw a line in the sand on what he’d find acceptable, detailing a proposal he made under the Biden administration that would have seen spending cut by 1%, should Congress continue to pass continuing resolutions. That proposal, he said, was “killed” by Johnson, setting the stage for what will likely be a heated battle between House Republicans ahead of the looming Sept. 30 deadline.

“It’s been falsely stated I voted for a Republican continuing resolution that passed during Biden’s administration,” Massie wrote. “Wrong. I voted for a deal, coupled with a debt ceiling increase, that said if we keep doing continuing resolutions, then the next continuing resolution cuts all spending 1% (the Massie plan). Johnson killed that deal.”