In a recent interview with host Sean Hannity, House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed his concern about President Joe Biden ’s cognitive decline. The speaker who met with the president at the White House for the first time in his new role was asked by Hannity, “Do you see in Joe Biden a cognitive decline? And if so, is that a danger to the country?” Johnson replied in an unequivocal manner, “I do, I think most of us do, That’s reality. It’s not a personal slight to him, it has to do with age and acumen, and everyone’s different. Everyone ages differently.”
Johnson further claimed, “Clearly, if you look at a tape of Joe Biden making an argument in the Senate Judiciary Committee a few years ago, and you see a speech that he delivers now, there’s a difference, Again, I mean, it’s not a personal insult to him. It’s just reality,” per the NY Post .
The Louisiana Republican, voted last year against sending $40 billion in aid to the war-torn Ukraine. Now following his briefing about the new proposal for a $106 Billion package for Ukraine and Israel, he doesn’t seem to be in in favor of packaging foreign aid together. He said, “I told the staff of the White House today that our consensus among House Republicans is that we need to bifurcate those issues, before pivoting to affirm his commitment to halting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offensive in Eastern Europe.”
He continued, “We can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there, and it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan, We have these concerns. We’re not going to abandon them, but we have a responsibility, a stewardship responsibility, over the precious treasure of the American people,”
As per The Hill , despite the political turmoil, President Biden congratulated Speaker Johnson, asserting in a statement, “Jill and I congratulate Speaker Johnson on his election, As I said when this process began, whoever the Speaker is, I will seek to work with them in good faith on behalf of the American people. That’s a principle I have always held to, and that I’ve acted on – delivering major bipartisan legislation on infrastructure, outcompeting China, gun reform, and veterans care.”
However, the president’s campaign took a different tone, criticizing Johnson, “MAGA Mike Johnson’s ascension to the speakership cements the extreme MAGA takeover of the House Republican Conference, Now, Donald Trump has his loyal foot soldier to ban abortion nationwide, lead efforts to deny free and fair election results, gut Social Security and Medicare, and advance the extreme MAGA agenda at the expense of middle-class families.”
Despite their policy differences, Johnson expressed respect for the office of the president and the need to maintain honor. According to the New York Post , during the interview with Hannity, Johnson echoed his support for the current impeachment inquiry into the president, which began under his predecessor, former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. “I believe the documents are proving all that, As my good brother Jamie Comer often says, ‘The bank records don’t lie,’ so we have the receipts on so much of this now. It’s a real problem, that’s the reason that we shifted into the impeachment inquiry stage on the president himself.”