Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) burst into spontaneous laughter when a reporter told her that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) claimed his leadership produced the most productive Congress in nearly 100 years.
Warren was taking questions in a Capitol hallway Thursday morning, on her way into a closed-door meeting. The senator’s unexpected laughter came a day after Johnson sent House members home until Nov. 9, canceling a vote on impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
“Speaker Johnson has said this is the most productive Congress ever,” one reporter said. Warren howled with laughter.
“Productive of what? More ‘yes, Donald Trump, whatever you want,’” Warren said. “I’m just — that’s really nuts!”
Warren threw her hand in the air as she walked through the door and cried “Unbelievable!” She could still be heard laughing after it closed.
Johnson made the claim Sept. 10 at the Republican Midterm Convention in Dallas, according to a fact-check Snopes published Sept. 16.
“It’s been the most productive Congress in 80 years, and we’re not done yet,” Johnson said in Dallas.
Snopes rated the claim false, noting that the House has passed 922 bills this Congress, the fact-check found, but only 110 have become law, compared with 274 under the previous Congress and 365 under the one before that.
Johnson’s early exit killed a vote on impeachment articles that Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) filed Tuesday against Hegseth over the Iran war, ABC News reported.
Massie filed the measure as privileged, which under House rules forced a vote within two legislative days. That set the vote for Thursday, the chamber’s last scheduled day before the break, ABC News reported.
Republican leaders instead canceled Thursday’s votes, NBC News reported, pushing the impeachment vote to Nov. 9, after the midterm elections.
“It is a publicity stunt by someone who wants attention. It will immediately be tabled of course,” Johnson said, denying the schedule change had anything to do with Hegseth.
The speaker also dismissed criticism of his decision to effectively cancel a vote on Hegseth’s impeachment ahead of the midterm elections.
“It’s time for our members to go home to their districts and make their case to the American people, to go and explain all the great things we’ve done,” Johnson told reporters Wednesday, according to NBC News.
Warren had criticized the recess earlier in the same exchange, before the productivity question came up.
“It is wildly irresponsible for the speaker to send his members home when we have an AI crisis we need to deal with, we have an affordability crisis that we need to deal with, we have an ongoing war that is illegal halfway around the world,” Warren said.
“It’s perfectly clear that to Speaker Johnson, all that matters is politics, all the time,” she continued. “So he doesn’t wanna hear that there’s going to be an impeachment action against Hegseth, so he sends everyone home.”
The Senate, where Warren serves, is scheduled to stay in session for the next three weeks, according to NBC News.
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