The Biden administration, on Friday, formally endorsed House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) scheme to fund Ukraine’s border defense.
The endorsement is an effort to rally House Democrats to essentially seize control of the Republican-controlled House.
Democrats have a reason to bail Johnson out — he is not former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “McCarthy was both incompetent and dishonest,” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), but “Johnson is just incompetent.”
HISTORIC: House Votes to Remove Kevin McCarthy from Speakership
U.S. House of Representatives
“The administration strongly supports House passage of the national security supplemental package,” the White House’s statement read Friday. “This supplemental provides over $95 billion in funding for critical bipartisan national security priorities.”
Johnson made history late Thursday night by relying on Democrats on the House Rules Committee to overcome objections from the majority and advance a rule bill to the House floor, Breitbart News’s Bradley Jay reported:
The committee voted nine to three, with all four Democrats on the committee voting with five Republicans to move a rule to the House floor, which, if passed with Democrat support as expected, would allow votes on Johnson’s foreign aid package, including a bill that includes tens of billions to fund Ukraine.
Conservative Reps. Chip Roy (R-TX), Thomas Massie (R-KY), and Ralph Norman (R-SC) voted no.
After the rule vote, Democrats, on Friday, openly bragged about controlling the floor of the Republican-controlled House for the next step of the scheme. “The world is watching. It is time for Congress to act. And act we must,” said Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the ranking Democrat on the rules committee.
Anti-establishment Republicans are furious at Johnson for flip-flopping on Ukraine aid, but none are willing, so far, to pull the trigger to remove Johnson from the speakership.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) quested:
The question everyone should be asking is what deal did Speaker Johnson make with the Hakeem Jeffries to get the Democrats on the Rules Committee to vote for a Republican rule on the foreign war package which includes $60+ BILLION more to Ukraine?
“Democrats don’t vote for Republican rules and vice versa, it’s unprecedented,” she added. “This vote happened around midnight too when no one was paying attention.”
The question everyone should be asking is what deal did Speaker Johnson make with the Hakeem Jeffries to get the Democrats on the Rules Committee to vote for a Republican rule on the foreign war package which includes $60+ BILLION more to Ukraine?
This never happens.… pic.twitter.com/mB7BBgzDnZ
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) April 19, 2024
Johnson, who previously opposed subsidizing Urkaine, was flip-flopped on Ukraine aid by his top policy adviser, a former lobbyist whose clients include several major companies that have issued corporate statements indicating interest in the war, Breitbart News exclusively reported Wednesday:
Johnson’s policy director, Dan Ziegler, was–until he joined the Speaker’s office as his top policy aide when Johnson won the Speakership last year–a lobbyist with the firm Williams & Jensen. He had previously worked for Johnson in other capacities, but left Johnson to become a lobbyist and accumulated a client list that included several top companies–some of which seem to have a financial interest in seeing Congress pass Ukraine aid. The lobbying firm for which he worked represents a number of top companies. Lobbying disclosures reveal Ziegler represented many of these companies, including several that have made corporate statements about the war in Ukraine or issued press statements or other public guidance saying it could affect their business operations.
…
Ziegler is not the only one in Johnson’s inner circle who has issues. Several other staffers working for Johnson have a series of troubling developments in their backgrounds, and as of now it is unclear if the Speaker himself is aware of all of this or not. Either way, this raises serious questions about his management of the conference and his handling of major legislative proposals like the foreign aid plan before Congress this week–and it undercuts the explanation several Johnson apologists have offered up that he is just having a tough time managing a one-seat majority and things would not be different if he resigned and Republicans picked a new Speaker.
This Breitbart News investigation is the product of research of lobbying disclosures, interviews with a number of highly-connected insiders–most of whom would not speak on record for fear of reprisal–and aggressive questioning of the Speaker’s office and his staff, including questioning of top aides. Here, for the first time, is the inside story of how globalists undercut the America First movement from inside Speaker Johnson’s office, and how the Speaker himself has now authorized them to go scorched earth in attacks against any conservatives and supporters of former President Donald Trump who seek to hold him accountable and block the four-pronged foreign aid scheme he outlined on Monday evening and introduced on Wednesday. The Speaker intends to set up a Saturday evening vote in the House of Representatives on the plan that completely abandons border security and instead pushes to funnel tens of billions more U.S. tax dollars to foreign countries like Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan. In a string of recent betrayals by the Speaker–the recent government funding plan and last week’s reauthorization of section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without a requirement for warrants for surveillance on American citizens–this one stings America First conservatives even more. Despite calls for his resignation from top conservative Republicans like Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY)–who say they are prepared to vote to remove Johnson by force if necessary–Johnson has tripled down in moving forward on the matter, not just completely ignoring conservatives aligned with former President Donald Trump who are openly criticizing the effort, but authorizing staff and allies like House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) to attack them in order to achieve congressional passage of this radical agenda. McCaul, as Breitbart News reported earlier on Wednesday, launched an unhinged attack on Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) over Ukraine aid. McCaul is one of Johnson’s top allies and quickly endorsed Johnson’s foreign aid framework without even having read the plan because it had yet been introduced when he publicly backed it. A day later, finally, the Speaker’s office released bill text.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
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