House Speaker Mike Johnson resorted to a condescending jab when pressed on accusations that he is refusing to swear in a Democratic Rep.-elect to keep the Jeffrey Epstein files buried.
Johnson has delayed seating Adelita Grijalva—who won her late father’s seat in a Sept. 23 special election—until after the government shutdown. The Arizona Democrat says Johnson is stalling because she has pledged to be the 218th and final signature needed to force a vote on releasing files related to Epstein.
“Let’s just be really clear, if I were a Republican, I would have already been sworn, and that is not acceptable. They’re afraid of me signing and being the 218th signer to the Epstein petition,” she said outside Johnson’s Capitol office on Tuesday.
Johnson, 53, patronizingly belittled Grijalva, 54, when he was asked to respond to her remarks during an appearance on Fox News’ America Reports Wednesday.
“Bless her heart. She’s a representative elect. She doesn’t know how it works around here,” said the Louisiana Republican, who has served in Congress since 2017. “We’re going to give her the oath of office as soon as we get back to regular session.”
Johnson has repeatedly defended the delay by maintaining that new representatives are not sworn in when the House is not in regular session.
“What Rep. Grijalva doesn’t understand is that there’s a certain tradition and process that we engage in here to administer the oath,” he continued.
Grijalva—whose father Raúl Grijalva served in Congress for more than two decades—has pointed out, however, that Johnson swore in two Florida Republicans while the House was out of town in April.
The Daily Beast has reached out to Grijalva’s campaign office for comment on the speaker’s remarks.
On Tuesday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sent a letter to Johnson condemning his “ever-shifting, unsatisfactory, and sometimes absurd” excuses for delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in and threatened to take him to court.
Johnson noted Wednesday that former Speaker Nancy Pelosi took 25 days to swear in Louisiana Republican Julia Letlow after she was elected in a special election in 2021.
“It has nothing to do with Epstein. That’s absurd,” he added, before changing course to blame House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer for the shutdown.
The speaker said that Schumer “is doing this because he is afraid of the Marxist rise in the Democrat party” and predicted that the shutdown wouldn’t end before the anti-Trump “No Kings” protests on Saturday, which he branded a “Hate America rally.”
Democrats have refused to back a GOP short-term spending bill unless it includes an extension of the Obamacare subsidies. Health care premiums are expected to skyrocket for millions of Americans if the subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of the year.
But Republicans have refused to discuss healthcare until Democrats back their plan to reopen the government.
C-Span announced Wednesday that Johnson and Jeffries had agreed to a debate on the network, with the date to be announced.
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