Republicans seek to tie Ukraine aid funding to border security
House Speaker Mike Johnson sits for a wide-ranging interview with Bret Baier on 'Special Report.'
House Speaker Mike Johnson spoke to Fox News' "Special Report" following a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the eastern European leader returns to Washington to petition Congress for millions in taxpayer-funded aid.
Johnson said he told Zelenskyy the same thing he's told President Biden and administration officials numerous times, which is that America can and should support the Ukrainian response to Russian aggression, but must also secure its own borders.
He noted how H.R. 2, a sweeping Republican-led border control bill authored by Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., remains stagnating on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's, D-N.Y., desk, and that the White House continues to appear loathe to any substantive new provisions.
"I told President Zelenskyy a very clear message… we stand with the Ukrainian people, the beleaguered people of Ukraine, and against Vladimir Putin's brutal attack — his invasion of their country. But we have to get our own house in order first," he said.
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House Speaker J. Michael Johnson, R-La. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty)
Johnson said he also told Zelenskyy the White House has yet to offer "satisfactory" answers when pressed for a clear strategy that would bring an end to conflict in Ukraine, given the funding America continues to offer.
Fellow Republicans, like Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., who made such comments on "The Ingraham Angle," have questioned the future of the Ukraine war, given how the monikered "Summer Offensive" did not turn out as much in Kyiv's favor as planned.
On "Special Report," Rep. Mike Johnson said the White House has gone silent on border control, while Democratic leadership in the Senate continues to stall as well.
"We passed H.R. 2… six months ago. It's been sitting on the desk of Chuck Schumer ever since," he said. "They've not taken us seriously, and here we are at the end of the year, and now they're saying we've run out of time. It's not the House's fault."
Johnson said he is prepared to dismiss House lawmakers on-schedule for their Christmas break, while adding the House will do its job if a deal does materialize from the Senate.
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The speaker was also asked about an intraparty clash over potential changes to Section 702 provisions, which cover the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) courts, which the FBI has used to track foreign threats, but had also been allegedly misused to spy on the 2016 Trump campaign, and led to the Mueller probe.
The House Rules Committee pulled two competing bills on the matter that were to be further debated in the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, which The Hill reported were brought up in a Republican conference meeting as a rudimentary debate between the two bills' virtues.
Detractors of the process like Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., quipped to the outlet that the process to analyze Section 702 should not be "a beauty pageant."
Johnson told Fox News the FISA issue has indeed been mishandled, but is also very complicated — underlining how it has helped prevent another 9/11-style attack.
"But it was also abused by the FBI, by our own government, over almost 300,000 times between 2020 and 2021, and so the civil liberties of Americans have been jeopardized by that. It must be reformed," he said.
"I thought in the small ‘D’ democratic fashion, we should sort that out because it's so important. This is not any regular area of policy. This deals with national security and we've got to get it right — so if it takes a little bit more time to do that, I think that's worth it."