'Astounding to watch': CNN reporter floored as Johnson and Thune now on 'collision course'
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and Sen. John Thune (R-SD) were at odds Friday after the Senate passed its DHS bill overnight to try to end the ongoing partial government shutdown.
Johnson announced on Friday that he would set forward his own legislation, which does not have enough support to pass, after the Senate bill passed, and called it "a joke." He said he wouldn't support it, despite the Senate Republicans' vote to support the bill to fund all agencies under the Department of Homeland Security except for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection. DHS has been unfunded since February due to disputes over ICE and CBP’s often violent operations.
CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox described what was next on Capitol Hill as Johnson pushed forward the new legislation.
"The reality is he probably would have enough votes if he were to get some Democrats along with him," Fox said.
"And we heard from [House Minority Leader Hakeem] Jeffries earlier today that he said Democrats were willing to do whatever is necessary in order to end TSA workers not getting paid as soon as today. So the votes likely would have been there if he would have brought this to the floor. But obviously, he is facing a lot of pressure from conservatives in his conference who were not happy with what the Senate sent over in the middle of the night."
Johnson was visibly frustrated in front of a group of reporters on Friday.
"It was really astounding to watch the Speaker of the House highlight parts of this legislation he did not like, and then accused Republicans of having not possibly read the entirety of this bill if they were truly supportive of it," Fox said. "It's just a good reminder, like you noted, this bill was passed by voice vote in the middle of the night by the Senate. That means that at some point, there was a unanimous agreement that this was the path forward. And obviously, this puts him and Majority Leader John Thune on a collision course. John Thune is the Senate majority leader. And while he tried not to call out John Thune by name, and he tried to tap dance around the fact that Thune was responsible for putting this on the floor. Thune's the majority leader. Johnson can argue that this was Chuck Schumer's master plan all along, but he doesn't have control of the Senate floor. John Thune does."
Fox pointed to the apparent division among Republicans in the House and Senate.
"Clearly, there is daylight between those two Republican leaders," she added. "And I would also point out that Johnson said he spoke to Donald Trump, the president, just before he came out. That might give you an indication of where the president is right now. If the Speaker of the House felt comfortable coming out here and making such a juxtaposition to what Senate Republican leaders did just a few hours ago, I mean, clearly, this is not a shutdown that is going to end any time soon unless there is some really radical shift in Speaker Johnson's direction, given how forceful he just was, that does not look to be the case right now."