Johnson: Schumer, Jeffries Afraid of a Challenge from Marxists in NY
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is putting the blame squarely on Democrats for the ongoing government shutdown, saying Republicans are ready to return to Washington and end the stalemate within 48 hours — if Senate Democrats will stop blocking the House-passed funding bill.
During an interview with Fox Business host Cheryl Casone, Johnson criticized Senate Democrats for voting yet again to block a Republican short-term funding measure that would have reopened the government through November 21. Monday’s vote marked the 11th time Democrats have rejected the GOP’s stopgap plan.
The bill, already approved by the House, failed in the Senate 50–43, with only Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) and Sen. Angus King (I-ME) breaking ranks to support it. Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) abstained.
Casone asked Johnson about the millions of Americans affected by the month-long shutdown, including unpaid federal workers and families relying on food assistance programs. Johnson said the situation is both “frustrating” and “avoidable.”
“Remember, it was over a month ago that the House did our job,” Johnson said. “We passed a clean continuing resolution — totally nonpartisan, 24 pages, very simple — just to keep the lights on so Congress could continue to do the work of appropriating the funds for the annual budget.”
Johnson accused Democrats of blocking the bill repeatedly for political reasons.
“They’ve done it now almost a dozen times,” he said. “They filed a counterproposal — but their CR is not a clean one, it’s a dirty one — because they want to spend a trillion and a half new dollars on all sorts of wasteful programs, including $200 billion to fund healthcare for illegal aliens.”
Johnson continued, pointing out that Democrats’ proposal would also funnel money back to liberal media and foreign projects:
“They want to give a half a billion dollars back to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to prop up leftist news organizations, and they want to spend billions of dollars overseas on all sorts of extraneous, crazy kinds of programs.”
Calling the Democrats’ approach “not a serious proposal,” Johnson said this is the first time in American history that a party has chosen to shut down the government over a clean continuing resolution.
He argued the standoff is being driven by Democratic leadership’s fear of the far-left.
“Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries are afraid of their far-left flank,” Johnson said. “They’re afraid they’re going to get a challenge in New York because Marxism is all the rage, and they’re going to lose their seats. It makes no sense, and real people are getting hurt.”
Johnson pushed back against claims that Republicans are refusing to negotiate.
“The mainstream media keeps asking, ‘Why aren’t you negotiating?’ Cheryl, I literally don’t have anything to negotiate,” he said. “In the past, continuing resolutions were loaded with partisan gimmicks. We didn’t do that. We sent over a totally clean CR.”
The Speaker reminded viewers that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer himself supported an identical stopgap measure earlier this year.
“Chuck Schumer voted for the identical measure in March,” Johnson said. “He gave an impassioned speech about how it would be totally irresponsible to harm the American people by shutting the government down.”
The only thing that’s changed, Johnson argued, is Schumer’s political calculation.
“The only thing that’s changed between March and now is that Chuck Schumer is afraid of the rise of Marxism in New York,” he concluded. “He’s afraid he’s going to lose the seat that he’s held for so many years.”
As the shutdown stretches into its fourth week, Johnson said House Republicans are ready to return to session within 48 hours to finish the job — but only if Democrats stop the obstruction and agree to pass the House-passed, clean funding bill.