Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wasted little time after 163 Democrats voted to save his speakership to announce he would not use Congress’s constitutional power of the purse to stop special counsel Jack Smith’s “lawfare” against Donald Trump.
The Speaker, in some of his earliest public comments after Democrats saved his gavel, refused to make any attempt to defund Smith’s office as it continues its prosecutions of Trump.
“That’s not something you wave a wand and just eliminate the special counsel as a provision,” Johnson told Politico. “There is a necessity for a function like that, because sometimes the Department of Justice — which is an executive branch agency — can’t necessarily, without a conflict of interest, investigate or prosecute the president who’s their boss, or the president’s family.”
When asked straightforwardly if he would write language eliminating Smith’s job into appropriations bills, Johnson replied “no.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) disdainfully pointed out Johnson’s statement on X, writing, “Mike Johnson when asked if he will stop the witch hunt that aims to throw President Trump in jail FOR LIFE!”
Greene and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who partnered to pull the trigger Wednesday night forcing a vote to eject Johnson after weeks pressuring him to end his coalition government with Democrats, had been pressuring Johnson to put up a fight against Democrats with spending bills and other must-pass legislation, such as the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) reauthorization, currently being considered.
Wednesday afternoon, Johnson, who had already surrendered leverage on the FAA bill to the Senate, unexpectedly scheduled a vote on a one-week FAA extension that would give Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) more time to finalize a package before the Friday night deadline. Johnson then canceled House votes for the remainder of the week, giving his members a long weekend while Schumer and his Senate continued preparations to once again jam the House.
Greene and Massie forced a motion to vacate vote hours later to let voters know where their representatives stood. The tally was revealing.
With a small but firm opposition to Johnson inside his own party, his speakership would be in jeopardy if Democrats revoked their support.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Marty Kaufmann
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://www.offthepress.com and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.