For Immediate Release
May 14, 2025
Contact: Taylor Haulsee
WASHINGTON — This morning, at the weekly House Republican Leadership press conference, Speaker Johnson addressed House Democrats engaging in a physical altercation with ICE agents and provided an update on budget reconciliation.
Watch the Speaker’s full remarks here
On House Democrats engaging in a physical altercation with ICE officers:
Three Democrat members of Congress got into a physical altercation with our ICE agents outside the Delaney Hall Detention Center in New Jersey. What a spectacle that was, what a horrible display for our children to see. Amid a long list of shameful and embarrassing episodes this year, that altercation, I think it takes the cake. I think it’s a new low for congressional Democrats. Instead of condemning the action, of course, the Democrat leadership in the House sent out a statement of support. My friend Hakeem Jeffries said, “We will never bend the knee.” Bend the knee to what, Hakeem? To ICE?
The reason the Democrats were even at the detention facility is equally concerning. The purpose was they were there demanding to shut down the detention facility. Now look, here’s who’s housed in the detention facility: violent gang members, rapists and murderers. They want to shut it down. We already know the Democrats support open borders. They support MS-13 gang members. They go visit them in jail. They want to allow illegals to vote, so many of them. But this really is, this is a new this a new low.
Republicans want to detain and deport criminal illegal aliens. Democrats want to empty the jails. Could you have a stronger contrast than that right there? We don’t need less detention beds and facilities, we need much more, and that behavior is just unacceptable. We’re grateful to US Attorney Alina Habba in New Jersey, she’s opened an investigation into this matter, and that legal process will play out. We’re having conversations, we had them this morning in the House Republican conference meeting this morning about appropriate action that we need to take here to address that inappropriate behavior, the wildly inappropriate behavior, and we will do that.
On budget reconciliation:
The bill is coming together. As you’ve heard, the last three committees are reporting out today. Everybody in this room gets fixated on a few final details about all this, but I think it’s important to just state one more time what we’re achieving through reconciliation. This will be the one of the most consequential pieces of legislation ever passed by the United States Congress. It is large, it is comprehensive, and it deals with reconciling the budget in a way that will be fiscally responsible. We’re going to slash taxes, including on tips overtime, Social Security for seniors and job creators, restore American energy dominance, secure our border, and deport illegal aliens. We’re going to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse, return to peace through strength and reduce spending, all at the same time.
And I put reconciliation on an aggressive timetable. Back in January, I said that we would try to do this as quickly as possible. We’re still on target to hit that Memorial Day deadline, which people balked at when we first said it. The American people are counting on us to get this done and get it done quickly, and we are on target to do it. President Biden left virtually every area of public policy in disrepair, and it is incumbent upon Congress to fix it and pass laws that cannot be easily undone or overwritten. We’re working around the clock to build consensus to get the 218 votes and deliver on President Trump’s America first agenda so the American people can really begin to feel relief.
On House Democrats lying about Medicaid:
As we’re working to get this done, House Democrats are working overtime to deceive the American people about this. We’ve discussed it already this morning, but they’re not talking about what the bill actually does. They’re using talking points that are pretty stale. They’re not afraid to lie about what’s in it, and we’re not afraid to tell the truth about what the Democrats are doing. They’ve already been forced to take down their advertisements because they were filled with falsehoods about what the bill supposedly was going to have in it. You probably saw last week. They’re at it again. They released a CBO report, so called, that claims that our legislation cuts many millions of Americans out of Medicaid. It’s obviously, demonstrably false.
Other outlets have reported on this. They included policies that are not even in the legislation. How could they have done that? Because they released a report before the bill text was issued. And most of the media ran with that, okay? And I’m just going to say this to my friends in the media, on the hill press corps in particular, right? If you allow Democrats to make these intentionally false claims without pushback, then you’re aiding and abetting in the spread of misinformation. I mean, you know, I’m stating the obvious. The job is to get the facts out there. So, we hope you will.
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