House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) showed his southern roots when he was asked at a Tuesday press conference to respond to a Democratic colleague who had called him a “liar” and said that he was “full of s***.”
The exchange began late last week, and the point of contention was a top-line number for the next funding agreement that must be reached by March 14 to avoid a government shutdown. When no such number was reached, Johnson suggested to reporters that was intentional.
“Leader Jeffries and others seem to be trying to set up some sort of government shutdown,” he said. “We were negotiating in good faith and trying to get the top-line number, but so far as I know, they’ve been sort of unresponsive the last two days or so. So I hope we can get back to it.”
“First of all, he’s full of s***. He’s a liar. And he’s a total shill for Donald Trump and Elon Musk,” Rep Jim McGovern (D-MA) said, pointing the finger at Republicans. “So he can blame anybody he wants … but we’re not walking away from the table. They’re not interested in hearing from us at this particular point. Maybe they will be in March.”
But when he was asked on Tuesday about McGovern’s comments, Johnson appeared unbothered.
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“Bless his heart. Look, the Democrats are flailing,” Johnson said. “I get it. They’ve engaged in some pretty crazy rhetoric in the last couple of weeks — you know, we’re going to shut down the city, we’re at war, we’re going to fight them in the streets, you’ve all seen that covered.”
“It’s because they’re kind of in panic mode in the party over there. They, as I’ve noted, don’t really have a vision or a strategy. They don’t have a leader. Their platform has been openly repudiated by the American people in the election outcome,” he continued. “They’re really in a tough spot and what people tend to do in politics in that way is they lash out at leaders on the other side.”
Johnson went on to say that he didn’t take such comments “personally,” adding, “I don’t think he can back up a single thing he said. What we’re doing is delivering on the mandate that the American people gave us.”
