Rand Paul Puts Mike Johnson on Blast: ‘Lost All His Principles’

Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, blasted House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday over recent government funding bills.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, first ascended to the speakership in October following a chaotic time in the House of Representatives after former speaker Representative Kevin McCarthy of California was ousted from the role. Since then, Johnson has had to oversee the GOP’s bitterly divided House caucus, which with its razor-thin majority margin can hardly afford to lose the support of any member on any given bill.

This issue has been most pronounced for government funding bills. When Johnson assumed the speakership, the federal government was barreling towards a mid-November budget deadline, after which it would be forced to shut down if a new continuing resolution was not passed.

McCarthy was previously ousted from the speaker role after he cooperated with Democrats to pass a temporary stopgap funding bill to avert a shutdown after months of heated negotiations. Last month, Johnson similarly managed to pass a $1.2 trillion minibus spending bill with support from Democrats, keeping the government funded through the end of September.

Further right members of the House GOP have called for steep spending cuts in exchange for their support of these bills, something Democrats have adamantly refused to accept, creating the ongoing stalemate. This tumult has led to a growing discontent with Johnson’s leadership from many in his caucus and among Republicans overall.

This includes Paul, the junior senator from Kentucky since 2011, who blasted Johnson in a Sunday interview while appearing on Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo, suggesting that his leadership would be no different from a Democrat’s.

“As I see it now, I’m not so sure there’s a difference between Mike Johnson being in charge and Democrats being in charge,” he said. “The debt, the deficit this year will be $1.5-2 trillion, and that’s Mike Johnson’s bill, he put it forward, he supported it with a minority of Republicans, with the majority of Democrats. This is not using the power of the purse, this is abdicating the power of the purse.”

He continued: “People have to be strong in their convictions. He was seen as a conservative before he came to the speakership…but now he’s completely changed and lost all his principles…If the Democrats want this level of spending, we want this level of compromise, splitting the difference. The Democrats got everything they want in the spending [bill], and all the hawks got what they want too.”

Newsweek reached out to Johnson’s office via email on Monday for comment.

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, recently introduced a non-privileged motion to remove Johnson from office the same day the spending bill passed the House. The congresswoman has also repeatedly attacked Johnson publicly, claiming that he is as Democratic as Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, a former House speaker.

Johnson on Wednesday responded to Greene’s threats to bring the motion to a vote during a press conference, issuing a warning about what it would mean for Congress.

“I don’t think that would be helpful to us from a political standpoint for the Republican Party to continue to govern, maintain, and keep our majority in November. I think that would have been a great hindrance to it. And so, that wouldn’t be helpful. Nor does a motion to vacate help us in that regard, either. It would be chaos in the House,” the House speaker said.

Johnson and Greene met later on Wednesday to discuss the matter, he said.