WASHINGTON — This afternoon, Speaker Johnson joined The Will Cain Show on Fox News to discuss how Democrats cynically treat their government shutdown as a game to win or lose, while millions of low-income American families prepare to miss meals and federal workers are showing up to work each day without pay.
Watch Speaker Johnson’s full interview here.
On the mainstream media running cover for Congressional Democrats:
For one thing, the polls are all over the place. I mean, CNN was reporting just on Friday of last week that Republicans were winning this as if it was some sort of political game. The only people who lose here are the American people. But those statistics like that, polls like that, don’t surprise me. The entire media establishment is parroting the talking points of the Democrats every day. It’s the most staggering level of gaslighting we have ever seen in American politics, literally. The Democrats have voted 14 times to close the government down whereas Republicans have voted 14 times to open it. And right after they cast the votes, will they go out and find the nearest camera they can, then look right into the lens and they say it’s the Republicans’ fault. I mean, it’s just madness. It’s absolutely the opposite of the truth. But I think the longer this drags on and the more pain that’s experienced by real Americans, I think they’re going to be digging beyond the headlines and looking to see who’s really responsible. And the facts are very clear.
On the Democrat shutdown preventing bipartisan appropriations negotiations:
We’re very mindful of the clock, and the great irony here is the Democrats are the ones that are taking the time off that clock. We needed it. Remember, we passed the clean CR back on September 19, well in advance of this cliff, the end of the fiscal year on September 30. It was Republican and Democrat appropriators, the people in Congress who specialize in the government budgeting and funding who came together and said, we need seven more weeks to finish our regular government funding process. But once the bill was put on the floor, all the Democrats except one in the House voted against it. And of course, all these Senate Democrats keep voting no. They’re doing this for one simple reason, Will, and this is what is so infuriating to us. Clearly this is motivated out of fear.
On Democrats refusing to drop their unserious demands to reopen the government:
Remember, before this all began, the four leaders went over to the White House. We sat across from [President Trump] at the resolute desk. Hakeem Jeffries was there, Chuck Schumer, myself, and Leader Thune in the Senate. And the President had a great dialogue. He said, give your proposals, guys. Well, remember they had just filed a $1.5 trillion demand for new spending, including giving $200 billion to illegal aliens to fund their health care again, to prop up NPR and PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They wanted to send billions of dollars back overseas to these crazy social programs in other countries. And the President said, well, obviously that’s a non-starter. Talk to me about something that’s real and reasonable. And they just stuck their thumb in his eye. So, the President tried, the great deal maker, the art of the deal. He can negotiate the end of wars around the world, but he does not have enough with these guys to overcome their fear of the Marxists in the Democrat party. There is a massive turn to the Left in that party, and that’s what’s motivating them.
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