Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is a “full equity partner in the firm” of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) said during a Tuesday appearance on Breitbart News Daily.
While Lee said he considered Johnson a friend and ally in the past, he said he has transitioned to the “opposite direction” and is “not on the side of the field” that he hoped. Further, Lee said he is “saddened to report that he appears to have been elevated to full equity partner in the firm” of Schumer, McConnell, and Jeffries.
“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said, noting that Johnson has adopted the ways of the “firm.”
“I’ve never seen such a flip. I’ve never seen such a transition in the opposite direction from what I expected. And, you know, I defended a number of decisions that he’s made — defended him personally in circumstances where he had made decisions I didn’t like, thinking, ‘Okay, he’s gonna find his feet.’ But I think he’s found his feet. They’re just not on the side of the field I had hoped and expected to see,” the senator explained.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Lee responded to different theories on why Johnson flipped so much as some wonder if the swamp has something on him while others ponder if better negotiators just steamrolled him. Some wonder if Johnson is bending because he is working with such a slim majority in the House. Lee, however, said he tends to gravitate toward the simpler explanations.
“To me, the simplest explanation — and, therefore, the favorite one — is that sometimes when somebody gets into a position of power, they really like being in that position of power … So maybe, for whatever reason, he’s concluded that the very best way to hold on to this position to remain as speaker for a longer period of time is to make nice with the war hawks and the intel hawks and the other militant moderate groups within the House of Representatives, even though that’s not who he has been,” he said, adding that it is also not how Johnson typically voted in the past.
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Breitbart · Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) – April 23, 2024“I think he’s chosen his side in order to hold on to power, and, quite ironically, by choosing to hold on to power, I suspect he may ultimately lead to his own demise as a speaker,” Lee predicted, noting how Republicans are somehow unable to get anything done with slim majorities, but Democrats do not seem to have that problem when they are in a similar position.
“Why is it that the bare simplest of thin majorities for the Democrats in the Senate — where you have to have 60 votes to pass most things — why is it that the Democrats get literally everything they want in the Senate, and Republicans, where a simple majority carries the day, get absolutely nothing that they want in the House,” he said, blasting Johnson for making arguments without explaining how he has come to his conclusions, largely hiding behind sensitive compartmented information facilities (SCIFs).
“If you can’t justify a vote by what you can say in public, you might be doing it wrong. In fact, you probably are, but under no circumstances do you go out there and say, ‘I’m right. And you’re wrong. But I can’t tell you why.’ That’s not appropriate,” Lee said.
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