Mike Johnson suggests 'wide-open border' to blame for New Year's attacks

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) suggested a new baseless theory about what he believes led up to a man ramming a pickup truck through a crowd in New Orleans in an attack that killed at least 14 people and injured dozens more.

The moment came Thursday during Johnson’s interview with Fox Business when the Louisiana congressman – who received a classified briefing from intelligence agencies and the FBI – was asked to weigh in on the New Year’s Day attack.

Johnson praised state and local officials, then criticized President Joe Biden and his outgoing administration for failing to prioritize border security.

“For four years now, the Biden administration has taken its eye off the ball,” Johnson told Fox News host Larry Kudlow on Thursday. “They did not prioritize, in our view, the right things.”

That’s when Johnson claimed, without evidence, that the border was somehow connected to the attack, even though authorities said 42-year-old military veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, was responsible for the massacre.

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“They tried to convince us that the greatest threat to the homeland was racially motivated extremism when we all looked at the wide-open border and thought logically that that might lead to terrorist attacks in the future,” Johnson said. “We need a dramatic change, and this emphasizes once again why this election was so important to the country.”

Johnson – who faces a contentious vote tomorrow for the speaker’s gavel – shifted his focus to lauding President-elect Donald Trump, who endorsed his bid to remain speaker of the House.

“We cannot get President Trump in here soon enough,” he said. “Eighteen days away from his inauguration and his cabinet coming in and we need all of these people that he’s chosen – who are law and order types who will get control of these agencies including the FBI and the DOJ – to get in immediately.”

“It can’t happen soon enough,” he added. Johnson said earlier in the interview that the GOP has to “stay unified” to fulfill Trump’s campaign promises.

“And I think it all begins tomorrow.”

Watch the clip below or at this link.