Press Releases

WASHINGTON — On Day 35 of the Democrat Shutdown, Speaker Johnson hosted a press conference alongside U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, House Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, and House GOP Leadership to discuss how Democrats have abandoned working families in an attempt to appease the Far Left. Speaker Johnson also addressed new research which found Democrats are “woke and weak,” something that is apparent to anyone who loosely follows American politics.

“They're gaslighting the American people and even their own base. The truth is, the Democrats have lost touch with working Americans because they've simply stopped listening and stopped serving them,” Speaker Johnson said. “And every few months, after leaning harder into their woke identity politics, they commission an expensive study to try to figure out why working-class voters have completely abandoned them in the Democrat Party…Of course you don’t need a months-long study to tell you that Democrats are woke and weak. You simply need to look around.”

Watch Speaker Johnson’s full remarks here.

On Democrats abandoning working families:

It's gotten so bad for them that even their traditional allies are losing patience. Now, the head of the Teamsters Union had a blunt message to Democrats a couple of days ago. “American workers are not bargaining chips. Senators need to stop screwing around and pass the House-passed, clean, short-term funding bill.” And it's not just the Teamsters as you know. AFGE, the largest union of federal workers, had the same plea, and so did the National Association of Air Traffic Controllers, the Coalition of Airline Pilots Association, the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots, the Allied Pilots Association, Southwest Airline Pilots Association, the New York Steamfitters Union. It goes on and on and on.

These organizations have traditionally backed the Democrats for decades. That has been true. They represent tens of thousands of working Americans, all these associations together, and now they're calling on the Democrats to drop their partisan demands and reopen the government. Stop inflicting this pain on the American people because you are afraid of your Far-Left base. And how did the Democrats respond to all this? They're gaslighting the American people and even their own base. The truth is, the Democrats have lost touch with working Americans because they've simply stopped listening and stopped serving them. And every few months, after leaning harder into their woke identity politics, they commission an expensive study to try to figure out why working-class voters have completely abandoned them in the Democrat Party. Here's a recent finding. This is a Left-leaning research group that surveyed 3,000 working class Americans. This is published in Politico, November 2: “Working class voters perceive Democrats to be woke, weak and out of touch, too focused on social issues and not nearly focused enough on the economic issues that impact everyone every day.”

And here's the kicker. They also said working class voters, “can't name what Democrats stand for other than being against Donald Trump.” Well, good luck with that as a message to the people. Of course, you don't need a months-long study to tell you that Democrats are woke and weak. You simply need to look around.

On the stark contrast between Congressional Republicans and Democrats:

It's now tied for the longest shutdown in U.S. history. We didn't think we'd have to come in here every single day, day after day after day and repeat the obvious facts to the American people and to put it on display every day what is happening here. Again, it's a split screen. We've talked about this split screen in the country right now. The American people are wise. Ronald Reagan used to remind us that you can trust the American people. And we do. And they can see the facts here. They see that the President Trump and the Republican Party are delivering real positive results for the American people, delivering on our promises. We passed the Working Families Tax Cut, which is the largest middle class tax cut in American history. We signed into law as part of that, no tax on tips, no tax on overtime, big savings for those on Social Security.

We strengthened Medicaid with popular, commonsense reforms that strengthen the program. We've improved health care access in rural communities, and we have reduced premiums. There's a lot more work to be done there. It is the Republicans who are delivering those reforms. We restored American energy dominance. We got the border crisis solved. We are reducing and handling the crime crisis in city by city around America. And we have restored peace through strength. That is on one side of the screen. Over the past 34 days of the shutdown, the Republicans have been the only ones working in good faith to end the shutdown and get everyone paid and get the services flowing again. And we have voted that way 14 times. That's on one side of the screen. On the other is the Democrats. And it's such a stark contrast because in the last 10 months, the only thing that that party has accomplished for the country is to shut down the federal government and cause this pain. The past five weeks have been painfully clear that Democrats are not interested in doing their most basic job.

On the passing of Vice President Dick Cheney:

Our condolences and our prayers go out to the Cheney family of course. We've had the loss now of former Vice President, Dick Cheney. Scripture is very clear, we give honor where honor is due and someone who gave their life, loved their country, loved serving their country in so many capacities. As you know, Dick Cheney served as Vice President. He served as a Secretary of Defense. He served as a congressman, of course, from Wyoming, and as the youngest chief of staff to any president in the history of the country. And the honor is certainly due to him. And our prayers go out to the family.