As the government shutdown enters its fourth week, the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are going to great lengths to avoid accountability. So much so that House Majority Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana is now attempting to lie to the public, claiming the Democratic Party is at fault in a press conference.
Johnson, flanked by other Republican members of the House of Representatives on Monday (Oct. 27), told reporters that the shutdown is the fault of Democrats despite President Donald Trump and Senate and House Republicans refusing to meet with them. “The Democrats are required to open the government,” Johnson began. “They keep saying Republicans are in charge of government. We aren’t. Not in the Senate. Sixty votes control the Senate. Not a bare majority. And so point number one, Democrat votes are required to open the government.”
The fact is, the Republicans control the White House, Senate and the House of Representatives. They also have the ability to bypass the filibuster, which is how they managed to install 48 nominees for the Trump administration, who were stalled by Democratic opposition, which was done in one simple majority vote in September.
Johnson’s refusal to even meet for talks for a short-term government funding bill also means that he is not officially swearing in the newest member of the House, Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, after she won a special election. Her win brought the number of Democrats in the House to 214 – it also ensures the final signature on a petition to force the full release of government files on disgraced sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
The House Majority Speaker is also eagerly doing the bidding of President Trump on the issue of the administration’s refusal to provide funding for the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP). “I got a summary of the whole legal analysis, and it certainly looks legitimate to me. The contingency funds are not legally available to cover the benefits right now,” he said in answer to a question on the issue.
Johnson’s move has reinforced ideas that he is subservient to President Trump, who has joked about it. “I’m the speaker and the president,” he recently said, according to sources who shared it with the New York Times. It has also shown some growing rifts in the GOP, with some vulnerable congresspeople like California Representative Kevin Kiley staging solo protests to get everyone back to work.
