Mike Johnson skips out on getting must-pass bill through House to praise Trump in Manhattan

A parade of surrogates and potential running mates for former President Donald Trump are in Manhattan today, holding court outside of the ex-president's criminal proceedings to defend the presumptive 2024 Republican nominee. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) is among them, despite an urgent bill awaiting passage in his own chamber roughly 240 miles away.

The Guardian reported Tuesday that in Johnson's remarks outside the courthouse where the 45th president of the United States is being prosecuted on 34 felony counts, the speaker stood by Trump, and regarded the "politically motivated trials" as "a disgrace" and "election interference."

"It’s impossible for anybody to deny, that looks at this objectively, that the judicial system in our country has been weaponized against President Trump," Johnson said. "The system is using all the tools at its disposal right now to punish one president to provide cover for another."

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Speaker Johnson even did what Trump can't do under his current gag order from Judge Juan Merchan, and lobbed attacks on former Trump attorney Michael Cohen, who is currently on the witness stand.

"This is a man who is clearly on a mission for personal revenge, and who is widely known as a witness who has trouble with the truth," Johnson said, adding that he was there not at the ex-president's request, but "on my own, to support President Trump, because I am one of hundreds of millions of people and one citizen who is deeply concerned about this."

For Johnson to say he's in Manhattan of his own accord is particularly noteworthy, as the $105 billion must-pass legislation to re-authorize the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) for another five years is currently awaiting action in the House of Representatives. Lawmakers have until Friday to pass the bill and get it to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law by Friday. Otherwise, more than 3,000 federal employees could be furloughed.

Some of the most critical components of that bill are $66 billion in funding to hire and train new air traffic controllers and to shore up safety measures, nearly $18 billion to modernize FAA equipment and infrastructure, roughly $19 billion for improvements at roughly 3,300 airports throughout the country, $1.5 billion for research, engineering and development and $738 million in funding for the NTSB to improve air safety measures. That funding also provides for Biden's automatic refund rule, in which customers who experience a delay of three hours or more for domestic flights have a right to an automatic refund, along with customers whose international flight departures are delayed for six hours or more. Previously, customers had to request a refund themselves.

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"We have had safety issues and concerns that we need to make a big investment. This legislation is that investment — in safety standards, in protecting consumers and advancing a work force and technology that will allow the United States to be the gold standard in aviation," Senate Commerce Committee chair Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) stated after the bill's passage on Thursday.

Johnson wasn't the only member of the House to come to Manhattan for the pro-Trump press conference. Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Florida) was also in attendance, and used his remarks to attack Judge Merchan's daughter — something Trump himself is prohibited from doing due to the gag order — for her political consulting work on Democratic campaigns.

"There is nothing wrong here. Nothing that has been poorly done by President Trump," said Donalds. "The only thing that's being done wrong is by this judge. His daughter is making money, raising money for Democrats."

Click here to read the Guardian's report in full.

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