House Speaker Mike Johnson doesn’t seem the least bit disturbed that President Donald Trump wants to lock up Illinois Democrats amid his federal takeover of Chicago.
During a press conference Wednesday, Johnson was asked whether he agreed with Trump’s outlandish plea to imprison Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Illinois Governor JB Pritzker for supposedly failing to protect ICE officers.
“Should they be in prison? Uh, should the mayor of Chicago and the governor of Illinois be in prison? Um, I’m not the attorney general, I’m the speaker of the House, and I’m trying to manage the chaos here, I’m not following the day to day on that,” Johnson said.
But the Louisiana Republican didn’t settle for a simple nonanswer, and how he felt about the president’s threat became all too clear.
“I do know that they resisted the introduction, or the offering of National Guard troops in Chicago, which is a terribly dangerous city, which has been destroyed—in the process of being destroyed under liberal, Democrat governance and their terrible polices,” Johnson continued.
He cited Trump’s federal crackdown in Washington, D.C., claiming that the streets of the nation’s capital were finally safe because Trump had “used the resources that were available to him to bring order to the chaos.”
“If we can do that in the other major cities in the country where they’re having crime crises, that should be seen as a positive, and I think most Americans see it that way,” he said.
Clearly, Johnson thinks Illinois Democrats should be grateful that Trump has decided to invade their cities with National Guard troops and immigration enforcement officers, rather than sue the federal government to stop the deployment of federal forces. A judge declined to immediately block the administration but warned, “If I were the federal government, I would strongly consider taking a pause on this until Thursday.” The National Guard has landed in Chicago nonetheless.
Over the weekend, a protest broke out after a fuming Border Patrol officer fired multiple shots at a protester who was part of a convoy of vehicles trailing agents on patrol. The Department of Homeland Security blamed “JB Pritzker’s Chicago Police Department” for refusing to help secure the area. The Chicago mayor has also moved to establish “ICE-free zones” that have infuriated the White House.
Notably, this isn’t the first time the president has threatened to imprison his political enemies, or anyone who stands in the way of what he wants.
The post Mike Johnson Cops Out Over Trump Demand to Jail Illinois Leaders appeared first on New Republic.
