It's one big con-job.
Posted on 04/17/2024 9:40:35 AM PDT by Kazan
The battle this ‘wartime speaker’ is ready to fight isn’t at home for his voters but nearly 5,000 miles and an ocean away.
efore Republican Rep. Mike Johnson became speaker of the House, he wasn’t an open proponent of bankrolling the Russia-Ukraine war. Even the Lousiana native’s first few months with the gavel were marked by his repeated pledge that the lower chamber would not pass legislation promising money to secure other nation’s borders while ours was still under attack.
Now that his leadership is threatened thanks to his continual collusion with Democrats and establishment Republicans, however, the self-proclaimed “wartime speaker” is abandoning his record of Ukraine skepticism in favor of joining the push for an endless stream of money to a corrupt overseas regime.
In May 2023, Johnson, then an individual member, declined to support another blank check to Kyiv because the U.S. “should not be sending another $40 billion abroad when our own border is in chaos, American mothers are struggling to find baby formula, gas prices are at record highs, and American families are struggling to make ends meet, without sufficient oversight over where the money will go.” Less than one month before becoming speaker, Johnson also voted no on a bill that promised $300 million more to Ukraine.
Even Johnson’s post-speaker election remarks, which featured shoutouts to Israel and other foreign policy issues, made no mention of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Shortly after he met with President Joe Biden at the White House to discuss passing Israel and Ukraine spending packages, Johnson changed his tune.
Just one week after he began presiding over the House of Representatives, Johnson announced a GOP agenda that hinted at fulfilling “obligations … around the world” but promised to “take care of our own House first.”
“We will take care of a border in Ukraine. We need to take care of America’s border as well,” Johnson declared.
During a quick colleague fundraising trip to Florida in November, Johnson again confirmed the forever war overseas “is another priority” but claimed further funding hinged on “changing our own border policy.”
For months, Johnson teased and taunted voters sick of seeing their taxpayer dollars thrown at a proxy war in Eastern Europe with promises to address domestic problems such as the ongoing border invasion, and punish the people responsible for incentivizing it.
In December, Johnson said the American border should be Republicans’ “hill to die on.”
“The battle is for the border,” Johnson stated. “We do that first as a top priority, and we’ll take care of these other obligations.”
Johnson even made a big show of visiting the U.S.-Mexico border and demanding the border be “closed and secured” before the House would consider more foreign spending.
“If President Biden wants a supplemental spending bill focused on national security, it better begin by defending America’s national security. It begins right here on our southern border,” Johnson said in Eagle Pass.
He said he repeated the sentiment during a meeting with Biden the next week.
“I told the president what I have been saying for many months, and that is that we must have change at the border — substantive policy change,” Johnson said.
Johnson continued what appeared to be a commitment to true border security at the beginning of 2024 when he deemed the Senate’s bad border bill “dead on arrival.” He also proceeded with impeachment articles for Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and criticized the Senate for passing a bill that included provisions for Ukraine but not the U.S. border.
Yet when the time came in March to put the money where his mouth was, Johnson and more than 130 House Republicans did not hesitate to pass a Democrat-led $460 billion spending bill that did nothing about the mass influx of border crossers illegally entering the country.
Around that same time, Johnson’s Ukraine talk also started to shift. He began trying to finagle new ways, such as loans and redistributing frozen Russian assets, to get Volodymyr Zelensky quick cash.
“Even President Trump has talked about the loan concept where we set up — we’re not just giving foreign aid,” Johnson told Fox News. “We’re setting it up in a relationship where they can provide it back to us when the time is right.”
Lured by the promise that Democrats will help him keep his currently threatened position if he takes up their causes, Johnson is dead set on bankrolling Ukraine against his conference and American voters’ wishes.
Johnson has spent the last couple of weeks in particular entertaining spending bills, which will likely be lumped together in reconciliation, that send money to Kyiv, Israel, and Taiwan. His decision to yield to and even join the uniparty’s Ukraine campaign proves he is actively sabotaging the little leverage House Republicans have.
He’s also sabotaging his position as speaker. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie announced Tuesday night that he would cosponsor Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s motion to vacate.
Johnson, however, is unfazed. Ukraine’s borders, not our own, are his new “hill to die on.”
“I’m not resigning and it is, in my view, an absurd notion that someone would bring a vacate motion when we are simply here trying to do our jobs,” Johnson said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Johnson’s so-called vision to “save the country,” however, doesn’t begin with addressing Americans’ mounting concerns about inflation, the border, lawfare, or any other issue plaguing our “beleaguered republic.” According to the speaker, saving America begins with caving to corporate media demands and sending Ukraine billions more dollars.
The battle this “wartime speaker” is ready to fight isn’t at home for his voters but nearly 5,000 miles and an ocean away.
Johnson is a lying sack of crap. Surprise!
Correct. If the house passes another bill like HR2, Schumer can pigeonhole that too as long as dems and RINOs control the senate. How will that help?
It's one big con-job.
I've been saying right along...The Dems hold the Senate, Biden has a magic Pen and that's reality. We need to win BIG in 2024.
Maybe O'Connell is the one we should go after...
At a certain point after following politics closely, you move away from reacting to events and begin to focus on proactively predicting events. You start to develop a mental tuning fork that finds the frequency of DC compromise. In essence, you begin to assemble data and take notes on visible activity that indicates compromise.
Those notes then becomes predictive data and you keep it visible for later reference when trying to review motives and motivations for the DC schemes. Generally, if you keep close watch and take good notes, you will catch around 80% of the public datapoints that highlight the path of the political compromise. Things that make other things make sense.
The origin of MTG’s dark motives and her individual compromise originates in the timeline of her marital breakup, sexual exploits with former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, and eventually divorce. MTG, Lauren Boebert and Sean Hannity all have this origination timeline in common. I’m not sure what originates the Deep State compromise with Massie yet, when that initial touch took place, but I do know it goes back much further in the timeline of his congressional tenure.
Thomas Massie now joins with MTG in calling for the removal of Speaker Mike Johnson.
Let there be absolutely no doubt, removing Johnson right now is giving the speaker gavel to Democrats. This Machiavellian way to remove Donald Trump has always appeared to be the Deep State insurance policy.
When the U.S. Supreme Court reinstituted Donald Trump on the federal election ballots of the five leftist states who removed him, the high court noted that disqualifying a person from presidential office could only be done by congress, not by the individual states.
If the Democrats take control of the House, disqualifying Donald Trump from federal office will be the purpose of their first legislative act. They already hold the Senate. They will do this. Thomas Massie knows this.
So, ask yourself, who exactly is controlling the action of Thomas Massie; remember, he’s the former endorser of Ron DeSantis on behalf of the Sea Island multinationals (banks). Does the question answer itself?
Accept things as they are, not as you would prefer them to be.
When we *think* we have found the bottom of the corrupt and conniving state within the DC system… Pause, have a nice cup of coffee, then remind ourselves we’ll never find the bottom of this level of corruption; it’s ‘effen bottomless.
WASHINGTON DC – […] Massie’s decision was not well received during the meeting, according to several members in the room. And Republicans across the conference, including some members of the Freedom Caucus, quickly pushed back on the idea of booting Johnson, noting it would spark chaos without a clear successor — a repeat of the House’s nightmare in October.
[…] Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said after Tuesday’s conference meeting that he still thinks they can avoid a vote to terminate Johnson’s speakership. But one GOP lawmaker, granted anonymity to speak candidly, was less optimistic: “Folks are very discouraged. … We are screwed.”
The simmering rebellion isn’t a total surprise after Johnson on Monday evening announced his plans to send four separate bills to the floor — on aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, plus a fourth with other miscellaneous provisions. That sparked pushback from Greene and some other conservatives, who have long opposed attempts to send further cash to Ukraine. And that opposition to Johnson could grow as the week goes on.
His first major hurdle on that package will be getting it through the Rules Committee, where hardliners of his conference hold three GOP seats. But he’s expected to succeed there; while conservatives could block the bill if they unite with Democrats on the panel, Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) said on Tuesday that he will vote for the rule, which sets the parameters of the House’s floor debate, in committee.
But it gets tougher from there. To even bring the package up on the floor, Johnson will need a majority of the House. And given conservative opposition he’s almost certainly going to need Democratic support. Typically, the minority party does not help on so-called rule votes, but some have signaled they’d make an exception for Ukraine aid. (read more)
What a disappointment he’s turned out to be.
McConnell, not O’Connell, but I agree.
He is a compromised liar. So much for his Christian claims. Meh
The Republican party doesn’t really want to lead.
*****
It is becoming more and more obvious. I know the Republican Party here in Illinois is no better. They have no fight. Most of the Party members in Illinois have let the Democrats run roughshod over them to the point that the Democrats have a supermajority. The Republicans are only in it for the pensions and perks. They couldn’t care less about leading. And the press here is just as liberal as anywhere else. No difference..
“He?”
Yes...It’s nap time...I’m 80...
The Republican Party only has the house...Be real please. Go after Schumer who is blackmailing “The People” by keeping HR2 from a vote.
I thought you might be suggesting that Mitch might have something in common with O’Bama. Maybe he does.
I said what I said and meant what I said...McConnell co-sponsored HR2. He’s the one we should be contacting to move HR2 in the Senate...like Schumer will listen to him..Yeh...right..
Would a simple majority in the senate pass it, or would they need 60 votes?
I thought it took 60 to get it to the floor, then a simple majority to pass.
I believe simple majority.
He is a man isn’t he? I could be wrong though.
🙋 👍💯
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