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WASHINGTON — This morning, Speaker Johnson joined Mike & McCarty on 710 KEEL in Shreveport and Talk Louisiana in Baton Rouge to provide an update on Congress’ work to secure the border, support our allies, and strengthen American election integrity. Speaker Johnson also addressed Louisiana redistricting and the 2024 election.

Click here to listen to Speaker Johnson on Mike & McCarty. Click here to listen to Speaker Johnson on Talk Louisiana

Below are excerpts of the interviews

On border security:

We have the smallest majority in only one chamber of Congress. I have a one vote margin, right? So I can pass things in the House, but it doesn't mean it's going to become law because the progressive Democrats run the White House and the Senate. And so, we sent over our legislation. We passed resolutions. We impeached Secretary Mayorkas at Department of Homeland Security, the first time a cabinet secretary has been impeached in the history of the United States. We have been fighting tooth and nail. But the problem was, at the very end, when we got down to the deadline of whether to fund the government or not, it came down to a binary choice. Chuck Schumer and the Democrats, and, Joe Biden dared us. They wanted us to not fund the government and shut it down, because they knew it'd be blamed on Republicans. It would be very painful to the American people. And then that would, that would make sure that we lost the house majority, the narrow majority that we have, in November.

We couldn't do that. Obviously, we have to grow the majority, win back Senate and put Donald Trump in the White House. We're not going to be able to save the country (if we don’t). And so that's what it came down to. Nobody abandoned the border. We're still fighting on it every single day. But at the end of the day, here's the truth: the President has to be, you have to have a president who is willing to enforce federal immigration law. And Joe Biden simply won't. Even if he signed our legislation into law, they'd ignore it. We already know that. So we must have an election cycle to fix this thing.

On supporting Israel and inviting PM Netanyahu to Congress:

I had a letter going back to mid-March to invite Prime Minister Netanyahu to come and speak to a joint session of Congress. I think it's very important and historic for him to come and do that, to give us the bird's eye view of what's going on in Israel and to address some of the criticism. I'm a big supporter of Israel, as everybody knows, because I think we have many reasons and obligations to do that. But Chuck Schumer has been trying to play both sides. I mean, the Biden administration not only has projected weakness on the world stage and gotten us into all these hot wars, but they've also been trying to appease Iran and criticize Israel. Schumer was trying to play politics with it. I sent him the draft letter. It has to be signed by the Speaker of the House and the Senate Majority Leader to have a joint address to Congress.

I sent it over to him in mid-March. He's been he's been dithering and not getting that done. So I called his bluff last week, and said I would invite Netanyahu myself and just skip over him and send individual invitations to senators to join us if they wished. And all of them would, I'm sure, except for a handful. And so finally he relented. He got public pressure and agreed to co-sign a letter so that invitation is going out. I expect that prime Minister Netanyahu will come soon. I'm scheduled to speak with him again in about an hour by telephone. And when I spoke with him last week, he was anxious to come and, and speak with us. So I expect it'll happen soon.

On the SAVE Act:

When they process illegals, the ones they do encounter at the border, and they send them throughout the country, they say, when you get to wherever you're going after taxpayers pay you for your bus ticket, plane ticket, train ride to get where you're going, go ahead and go into that local welfare office and sign up for public benefits, taxpayer benefits, for example.  Oh, and by the way, when you're there in every one of these offices around the country, you get a one-page form and it says, check this box if you're a US citizen, and would like to vote.

We have no idea of knowing how many people are doing that without proof of citizenship. Because under federal law, believe it or not, under current law, the states are prohibited from requesting proof that that box is checked correctly. We have a law called the SAVE Act, a bill that we've filed, that went through committee last week. It'll be passed through the house very shortly since the Senate. I hoped in a bipartisan fashion it will be enacted, because that will prevent illegals from actually being able to participate in November.

On Louisiana redistricting and the 2024 election:

It remains my belief that the Congressional maps that were passed after the 2020 census are fully constitutional, and they should be used in November. But of course, we know the Supreme Court has stepped in and now suspended the Fifth Circuit decision on point, and now we've got to all fight to win in these newly drawn districts. I don't believe, I don't think anybody believes that these new districts are going to survive even one cycle. So we'll have them for two years. But under the new map you've got voters, for example, in Shreveport, the far northwest corner of the state, my hometown, that are going to be voting for a congressman that will all but likely reside in Baton Rouge. And that just doesn't make sense to people.

As house speaker, it is my duty is to do everything in my power to maintain and grow the House Republican majority. And I just want to say, on behalf of all my Republican colleagues, you know, there's six members in the house, of course, in Louisiana. Five are Republican, one's a Democrat. Of the five Republicans, we have the most powerful Congressional delegation in the entire country… It's an incredible group. We need to keep all of them. And I'm really hopeful they'll work hard and win their districts again.