MTG takes aim at Speaker Johnson over shutdown: 'ABSURD'

Joining us now, House Speaker Mike Johnson. Welcome back to Fox News Sunday.

Glad to be with you, but it's a frustrating day for sure.

Well, what are we, day 33 now? And there are real world things that are kicking in this weekend, impact to real Americans that have been, some, many have been experiencing missed paychecks, those kinds of things, a broader impact this weekend. I want to start here.

The Washington Post says this, Americans blame Trump and GOP more than Democrats for shutdown, citing their poll. Independents hold Trump and Republicans responsible for the shutdown by a 2-1 margin. That's according to this new poll. So more Americans still think you are to blame than Democrats are. What's your message to them?

Well, first, take issue with that. I mean, just 24 hours before that one came out, CNN, of all places, had a big story about how Republicans are winning the shutdown battle. But we reject all of this. This is not about winning a political contest here. Real people are losing.

The American people are hurting. Democrats have voted 14 times now, Shannon, to keep the government closed. 14 times they had the opportunity to have SNAP benefits float, to let air traffic controllers be paid, to take care of all these problems and pay the troops and they said no and it is a fact that no one can dispute that they shut the government down over restoring free health care to illegal aliens as part of their 1.5 trillion dollar wild partisan wish list. They're playing games and real

people are suffering because of it. But with these numbers in mind, why do you think they will be willing to come back to the table and negotiate at some point? They think that they're winning the optics of this.

Well, I don't know how they can believe they're winning if it were indeed a game to them. And I think it is because you have all the unions now coming out against them. You have the major airlines in the country. You have every segment of the population and hardworking Americans who will be going without you have 42 million recipients of snap that are in jeopardy right now. You have women, infants, and children

because the nutrition program that President Trump and the White House have heroically funded thus far is running out of money. And of course, the troops. I mean, we've gotten them paid now for two cycles. But that money is not inexhaustible,

and it's running out. And so increasingly, the American people will be feeling the pain. And after we pass that threshold of the first of this month, it gets very real for more and more people.

So the president says it's about getting rid of the filibuster, not something you have to deal with on the House side. But he's putting pressure on your Senate colleagues, saying, get rid of this 60-vote threshold. You can move most things by a majority vote in the House. Here's part of one of his recent posts. He says, remember, Republicans, regardless of the Schumer shutdown, the Democrats will terminate the filibuster the first chance they get. They'll pack the Supreme Court, pick up two states, and add at least eight electoral votes.

Don't be weak and stupid. Republicans, you will rue the day that you didn't terminate the filibuster. Be tough, be smart, and win. There are some GOP senators indicating at least the tiniest open door to possibly making changes. What's your advice to the other side of the hill?

Well, I think there's a lot of Democrats, I mean a lot of senators, Republican and Democrat, who have resisted it in the past. We on our side traditionally have resisted that because the worst impulses of the far-left Democrat party, they would pack the court. They would do all the things the president has discussed there. I think what you're seeing there is a reflection of his anger, his real frustration that the government is closed.

He is a big-hearted president. He wants everybody to get their services and the health services for veterans and SNAP benefits and all the rest. And he's tried everything he can, and he is now exhausting his ability. The courts are now saying you can't go any further.

So he's just desperate for the government to open. He's tried everything he can. He's tried to negotiate with them. He's pleaded with them. And they're still dug their heels in. So this is a reflection of all of our desperation. We're angry about it.

I think we should be. The filibuster has traditionally been a safeguard against those worst impulses. But we'll see what the Senate does.

OK. So of course, your counterparts, Democrats, do not think he's big-hearted or trying to help. They think he's using people as pawns that are desperate and in need of government aid and paychecks and those kinds of things. It sounds like the president is willing to try to find a way to get these SNAP benefits paid out after two federal courts on Friday said, you got to do it. Axios says this.

They say Trump kept SNAP funded during the 2018-2019 shutdown by using contingency funds. Representative Salud Carbajal, a member of the House Committee on Ag, told reporters on Wednesday, when it suits them, they have all the funds in the world. When it doesn't, of course, there's nothing. So even if the administration figures this out, there's going to be some sort of delay. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer says Republicans are using seniors and vulnerable.

They're weaponizing hunger.

It's absolutely absurd. They are accusing the Republicans and the president of doing exactly what they are doing. Remember, don't get lost in the facts. Republicans have voted 14 times to open the government. Democrats have voted 14 times to close it. Who's playing games here?

We have a clean, simple CR, a continuing resolution, no partisan gimmicks, tricks at all. It's 24 pages in length. It would keep everything going. The president is bending over backwards to take care of the American people, and it's the Democrats who are quite literally using the people as leverage. I can quote you, senator after House member on the Democrat side in the last two weeks who have said the quiet parts out loud. From White House to Coons to Catherine Clark,

the number two Democrat in the House, they've all said that. Bernie Sanders. They've all said this is their leverage. Their leverage for what? So they can show that they're fighting President Trump to the far left because they're worried about the Marxist rise in the Democrat Party. We see it in New York City and elsewhere. And because they want, they actually want, and they've argued and they put on paper, they want illegal aliens to receive taxpayer-funded benefits again. That is a fact. They've never changed it. They've never pulled back from that. Everybody can see the stark contrast

between the two parties right now and one is fighting for the people and

that's a Republican Party. So another thing that happened this weekend is open enrollment began for Obamacare. People are seeing a change in their premiums essentially if these subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year are not changed, renewed, handled in some way. Last time you were here, we talked about Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had some real frustrations about this. Where is the Republican plan?

I know you two had talked. Well, she posted this on X this week. She says, Johnson said he's got ideas and pages of policy ideas and committees of jurisdiction are working on it, but he refused to give one policy proposal to our GOP conference on our own conference call. Apparently I have to go into a skiff, referencing a protected intel sharing type place, to find out the Republican health care plan, and there are a lot of exclamation points there.

Yeah.

I don't know what to say about that. I mean, that's absurd. Obviously, we're not going to be on a conference call explaining all of our plans and strategies for health care reform because they're leaked in real time. Literally when I have a conference call with all my members it's it's tweeted out by a journalist. They're supposed to be private but they're not

and so Marjorie knows that. She knows she can come into my office any day at any hour and I'll lay out everything for her. The committees of jurisdiction, the people who specialize in all of this, have been working on this around the clock for a long time. In fact, we published 60 or 70 pages of health care reform ideas in 2019 when I was the chair of the Republican Study Committee, the largest caucus in Congress. Our ideas have been out there for a long time. We're formulating the final plan that will bring down premiums. There's only one party in America that is going to do that. Remember the Democrats are the ones that created the system that is failing us. They created Obamacare. They

said it was going to bring down costs. It's done exactly the opposite. Premiums by some estimates are up 60% since Obamacare was created in 2010. So it's the Republican Party that is going to bring down the cost, not the Democrats. They've already proven what they're about. OK, I want to move to a couple of other issues.

One, we've been told overnight there was another strike on a drug-running, alleged drug-running boat. There were briefings this week, and there were folks who were listed on the Senate side. Democrats weren't even included.

But there was a bipartisan briefing on the House side. Here's what the top Democrat on House Foreign Affairs Committee, Congressman Gregory Meeks, said. He said the briefing was incredible, incredible for how little information was shared, how little time the briefers stayed to answer questions, and how completely absent any credible legal rationale was for the administration's unauthorized ongoing expansion of these strikes. The reports the Office of Legal Counsel told lawmakers the administration is not bound by the War Powers Resolution that requires congressional approval for this kind of action. You're a constitutional

lawyer. Do you think the administration is on solid legal ground with these

strikes? Yeah, a couple of points. We had a gang of eight briefing with the Secretary of State himself about a week and a half ago, and you had Republicans and Democrats. They're the top leaders on both sides and intelligence and elected leadership. We have exquisite intelligence about these strikes. And I can't get into the classified parts, but that information is well known. It is very reliable.

And what the president and the administration are doing is protecting the homeland. That's one of his number one responsibilities. I like what Secretary Hexeth said at the opening. You had his quote. Narco-terrorists will be treated like Al Qaeda. We have to do that.

They're bringing in huge amounts, tons of illegal narcotics into the country, and it is killing Americans. Remember, fentanyl alone was a leading cause of death for Americans age 18 to 49 in the four years of the Biden administration.

We finally have a president who's strong enough to stop that and to protect the people. And one of these boats, Shannon, could kill potentially tens of thousands of Americans. This is serious business. They're taking it seriously. And Congress will continue to have oversight. We'll have more of these hearings.

But thus far, the intelligence that we have is very reliable.

So you're convinced, even if your Democratic counterparts are skeptical, you're convinced at this point?

I do know that my Democrat counterparts would come out of any hearing with the administration and say that it

Was inadequate right? I mean, it's politics. Okay. I want to ask you to about not yet seated representative elect at Alita Grohalva There's now a lawsuit about this They say there's no dispute about her election or her qualifications and add this Speaker Johnson wishes to delay seating Ms Grohalva to prevent her from signing a discharge petition that would force a vote on the release of the Epstein files

and or to strengthen his hand in the ongoing budget and appropriations negotiations. Why hasn't she been sworn in? What's your response to the lawsuit?

Paul, this is so ridiculous. And we could take 30 minutes to talk about all this. But Grijalva, Rep. Lech Grijalva, will be sworn in as soon as we get back to regular session. Remember, it's the Democrats who shut the Congress down, so we can't do that. Can you not swear her in, though,

when you're not operating in regular business?

There is a precedent for doing a pro forma session, swearing in, but we're not engaging in regular business right now. And what I'm doing is following the Pelosi precedent in the past when she was Speaker, and you had representatives elected

during special elections, special situations. When Congress was on recess or out, she would wait until the regular session to do it. I'm doing the exact same thing. But the Epstein thing is a complete red herring. It's a distraction from what's going on right now and then causing harm to the American people with the shutdown.

The Epstein estate documents are out. The Epstein files are out. 43,000 pages so far, more on the way. Subpoenas are being complied with. The House Oversight Committee, which is filled with some of the biggest guard dogs in Congress on

the right and the left, republican and democrat, are dug in deeply. In the last two weeks while we have been on shutdown they have released the flight logs, the personal financial ledgers, the daily calendars of Epstein himself.

The lawyers are continuing to dig through and release all that. We're for maximum transparency, always have been. They're using this for a political issue, and it's patently obvious what's going on

here. All right. We wish you progress this week in getting this thing wrapped up. Thank you.

Mr. Speaker, thank you.

Good to be with you. Hey, everyone. I'm Emily Campagno. Ponyo. Catch me and my co-hosts Harris Faulkner and Kaylee McEnany on Outnumbered every weekday at 12 p.m. Eastern or set your DVR. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the Fox News at 12 p.m. Eastern or set your DVR. Also, don't forget to subscribe to the Fox News YouTube page for daily highlights.