'You could see his face turn': CNN's John Berman struck by Mike Johnson reaction
CNN's John Berman describes the reaction from House Speaker Mike Johnson when he was asked about Ghislaine Maxwell.
The Louisiana Republican appeared Friday morning on "CNN News Central," where Berman asked him about Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche interviewing the Jeffrey Epstein co-conspirator, who was subsequently transferred to a minimum-security prison camp after saying she had never witnessed President Donald Trump behaving inappropriately with women or girls of any age.
"When I asked Johnson about Ghislaine Maxwell, I read back a quote from Maxwell's interview," Berman said. "You could actually see his face turn. I mean, he really could not possibly hold her in lower regard, so he told me he discounts everything she says. But he also went on to say some interesting things about what might happen in Congress, because there is this discharge petition that could ripen in the next few weeks from Congressman [Thomas] Massie, from your home state of Kentucky, and also [Rep.] Ro Khanna from California, and what was interesting is he really was evasive on it."
"Speaker Johnson really seems to think that maybe the conditions have changed, maybe that won't be something that's followed through with with 218 signatures," Berman said. "So stand by for that, he won't give a solid answer."
The House speaker also declined to give a solid answer on the president's call for a sweeping crime bill, including billions of dollars of new funding for law enforcement in Washington, D.C., where Trump has called in the National Guard to help patrol the streets, and Berman asked why troops weren't deployed to Johnson's hometown of Shreveport, which has a much higher crime rate.
"It is interesting to hear the way Speaker Johnson does talk about that, because the only cities where President Trump has talked about sending National Guard are in states run by Democrats," Berman said. "There are high crime cities in states run by republicans like Louisiana, like Tennessee, Nashville and Memphis, have higher crime rates, but you don't hear the administration or senior Republicans talk about sending the National Guard there."
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