| April 17, 2024
For Immediate Release Contact: Taylor Haulsee Speaker Johnson joined Fox Business and CNN to discuss the House’s supplemental national security legislation
WASHINGTON — This afternoon, after announcing the House’s national security supplemental plan, Speaker Johnson joined Larry Kudlow on Fox Business’ Kudlow and Jake Tapper on CNN’s The Lead to discuss the House plan, the need for urgent border security measures, and the motion to vacate.
“What we’ve done is taken the Senate supplemental bill, and we’ve improved the process and the policy, and that’s a really important thing,” Speaker Johnson said.
Click here to watch Kudlow, here for The Lead
On the supplemental national security package:
What we’ve done is we’ve taken the senate supplemental bill, and we’ve improved the process and the policy, and that’s a really important thing. What we’ve done for example, in the Ukraine piece of this, is we’ve added the loan instrument concept, we’ve added the REPO Act – which everybody knows is the seizure of corrupt Russian oligarchs’ assets – to be used to fund the effort in Ukraine. We introduced a lot of new accountabilities and oversight. The Congress has a responsibility to do and the strategy shift as well. We’re going to require within 45 days, the White House to deliver to Congress a meaningful plan. What is the endgame here? What’s the objective and how are we going to accomplish this and bring this conflict to an end?
By the way Larry, on Ukraine, 80% of what we’ll spend here goes to America’s industrial defense base, and that’s a replenishment of our stocks and weapons. And I think that’s a really important point. We’re also adding sanctions against Russia and Iran and all our adversaries including China, and that’s a really important thing as well.
So, the House will do its will and have a rigorous amendment process to the underlying legislation.
On the urgent need to support U.S. allies:
You got to be tough on your adversaries. The problem is you and I both know, Larry, this President is projecting weakness on the world stage and that’s why all our nation’s enemies are acting so provocatively. On the Israel example, I mean, President Biden and Chuck Schumer had been criticizing Israel and appeasing Iran, that strategy should be exactly the opposite. We should be helping Israel and they’ve been turning their backs on them.
And then of course, this encourages Xi and encourages China, when they see that we’re not going to stand strong and we’re not going to put the flag in the ground so to speak and hold the line. They’re going to act, they’re going to move, and we’re concerned about what China may do in Taiwan. We talk about it all the time. We’re certainly concerned about Iran’s open aggression now against Israel, our dear friend and ally. And Russia, of course, is still on the march in Ukraine. We must stand strong. A strong America is good for the entire world. We bring stability and peace – the perception that America is strong is important and has been since World War II and we cannot let down that responsibility.
On border security:
Some of my colleagues want the Speaker of the House to have a magic wand. If we could close the border ourselves, we would have done it a long time ago. We passed HR 2 over a year ago, it’s sitting on Chuck Schumer’s desk. That had all the components. It closes the border, changes asylum processes and problems, ends catch and release and in reinstates remain in Mexico. All the things that President Trump had done so effectively, Biden reflexively did the opposite. And that’s been the problem.
We pass resolutions, we pass the laws, they sit on Chuck Schumer’s desk in the Senate because again, the Democrats run the Senate, the Democrats run the White House, and they want an open border. That voter ID, the idea that you would have to prove that you’re a US citizen to vote in a US election, a federal election, is critically important. We’re going to move that in the days ahead as well. That’s what we were talking about at Mar a Lago at the press conference.
But the American people demand this, they deserve it. We know the border is a catastrophe. And the reason that we’re bringing to the floor this week, the End the Border Catastrophe Act, is because it’s aptly named. And it describes what is on the hearts and minds of every single American. It doesn’t matter where you live. I’ve been in 23 states in the last seven or eight weeks Larry traveling around the country. It doesn’t matter whether I’m out west, upstate New York, deep south, Midwest, it’s all the same. Everybody knows, this is what we must do. If you don’t have a secure border, you don’t have sovereignty; you don’t have security. You don’t even really have a nation. And that’s what Joe Biden has put at risk. And that’s why we had to impeach Mayorkas.
On President Biden’s weakness:
I think this sets up the next election, the next administration, the next president, and I believe [Trump is] going to win – in a better position. I think that President Trump is strong enough that he could enter the world stage and broker a peace deal in Ukraine, if Russia is still advancing at that time. I mean, I think he has the strong enough hand to be able to do that. And that’s why this election is so important. There’s a very stark contrast – you know we didn’t have all these global conflicts. We didn’t have hot wars around the globe when Donald Trump was the president. You know why? Because our adversaries feared him and respected. They don’t fear and respect Joseph Biden. And that’s a real problem for all of us.
On the motion to vacate:
I’m not asking the Democrats to get involved in that I believe the house will do as well. Look, I’m trying to govern and lead this institution at a very interesting, unprecedented time. We have challenges right now that no previous generation has faced. Newt Gingrich posted a few days ago on social media. The speaker’s job is effectively impossible. Now he said that I’m doing the hardest job that maybe it has ever been in the history of the U.S. House. Maybe, he said, arguably since the Civil War. Why because we live in a very divided time and very divisive politics in the age of social media. 24-hour news cycle, where everybody can express their opinions every moment of the day but things they’re disgruntled about. It makes a lot of challenges, but we’re going to get through this. Listen, we are the greatest nation in the history of the world. Okay, we are going to show that we’re going to keep the train on the tracks and not get derailed and get involved in all of this. It’s such a dangerous time on the world stage and that look, I don’t walk around thinking about the motion to vacate. It’s a procedural matter here that I think it’s been abused in recent times. Maybe at some point we change. Right now, I’ve got to do my job. And so do all my colleagues. And I’m confident at the end of the day, in spite of all the drama, and all the palace intrigue, I think we’re gonna get that done.
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