Facing growing backlash from Democrats and even lawmakers from his own party — as well as GOP voters — for sending the House into recess during the shutdown, Speaker Mike Johnson is turning his anger toward Democrats and the broader left.
As Politico reported on Friday, Johnson is “dead set on keeping the House out of session as long as it takes to pressure Senate Democrats” on the shutdown, to pass the House’s continuing resolution to fund the government.
The Speaker suggested tensions are so high in the halls of Congress right now that he thinks Democrats need to be “physically separated” from Republicans.
“Emotions are high. People are upset — I’m upset,” Johnson said on Thursday. “Is it better for them, probably, to be physically separated right now? Yeah, it probably is, frankly.”
Johnson, who was set to host a now-postponed private Palm Beach, Florida “retreat” and fundraiser this weekend, went even further on Friday morning.
“We’re so angry about it,” he told Fox News. “I mean, I’m a very patient guy, but I have had it with these people,” the Speaker said, emphatically, of Democrats. “They’re playing games with real people’s lives.”
“The theory we have right now — they have a hate-America rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall. It’s the pro-Hamas wing and Antifa people, they’re all coming out. Some of the House Democrats are selling T-shirts for the event. ”
“And it’s being told to us that they won’t be able to re-open the government until after that rally, ’cause they can’t face their rabid base,” Johnson said, adding that he is “beyond words.”
Johnson appeared to be referring to the “No Kings” rally, a protest against authoritarianism, which is not only being held in Washington, D.C. on October 18, but nationwide.