House Speaker Mike Johnson, the previously little-known Louisiana Republican who claimed the chamber’s gavel this week after 22 days of chaos, gave a wide-ranging interview to Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday night. Here are Johnson’s top 12 lines from that interview.
1. President Joe Biden
“If you look at a tape of Joe Biden making an argument in the Senate Judiciary Committee a few years ago and you see a speech that he delivers now, there’s a difference. Again, it’s not a personal insult to him. It’s just reality.”
2. The Biden administration
“I think it’s been a failed presidency.”
3. Foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel
“I told the staff at the White House today that our consensus among House Republicans is that we need to bifurcate those issues.”
4. Foreign policy
“We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there. It would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns.”
5. U.S. boots on the ground in Israel
“It’s a very delicate situation; it changes by the hour. We’re watching it very closely. We certainly hope that it doesn’t come to boots on the ground.”
6. Palestinian aid
“They use the Palestinians as shields. They don’t even provide the people with clean drinking water. We’re supposed to believe they’re going to use U.S. aid for humanitarian purposes? Count me as a skeptic, OK.”
7. Biden impeachment
“If, in fact, all the evidence leads to where we believe it will, that’s very likely impeachable offenses.”
8. China
“China is a near peer-to-peer adversary to us right now, and their goal is to rebuild the empire. So we’re doing everything we can to ensure we maintain our military superiority.”
9. Motion to vacate
“I think we’re going to change it.”
10. Stopgap budget measure
“We’re working through this with the ideas and trying to ensure that if another stopgap measure is required, that we do it with certain conditions.”
11. Gay marriage
“This has been settled by the Supreme Court in the Obergefell opinion in 2015. So, that’s the decision. … I’m a constitutional law attorney, I respect that and we move forward.”
12. Abortion
“There’s no national consensus for the people on what to do with that issue on a federal issue for certain.”
