Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) said he has “never seen a bigger flip-flop in politics” than he has with Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), making the remark during an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday.
Banks, who is running for Senate, discussed the ongoing shock and drama surrounding Johnson, who replaced former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) after his ousting.
“I’ve never seen a bigger flip-flop in politics than what Mike Johnson has done after he repeatedly said, ‘No more money for Ukraine until we secure our own border,’ and today, he’s doing just the opposite and here, in a couple of hours, may go down to the floor and cast yet another vote against billions of dollars more for a foreign country, Ukraine, while our House Republican leadership has completely abandoned our border,” Banks said.
Banks said he does not have a good explanation for what happened to Johnson, noting that the speaker also chaired the Republican Study Committee, “the largest conservative caucus, and he put out balanced budgets, talked about fiscal responsibility, and yet, he oversaw the biggest spending bill in congressional history with earmarks for late-term abortions and transgender surgeries a few weeks ago.”
U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“I don’t know what got into him. I don’t know who got to him. I don’t know what got into him,” Banks said, explaining that the “excuse of going into SCIFs [sensitive compartmented information facilities] and hearing classified briefings doesn’t hold up because I serve on the Armed Services Committee, and I’ve heard all of the same briefings.”
“I’m disappointed about it. I don’t have a good explanation. I don’t know why he’s doing this, but … it’s a big flip flop [and] a big disappointment for Republicans,” he added, discussing how Johnson essentially handed the speaker’s gavel to Democrats with this new arrangement.
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“I thought it couldn’t get any worse after the omnibus spending bill with the biggest price tag in American history and earmarks for late-term abortion facilities. I thought it couldn’t get worse than that, but this, this takes the cake,” he said of Johnson’s flip-flop.
“Another $60 billion for Ukraine without securing our border after we said over and over and over and over and over again that we weren’t going to do that,” Banks continued, noting that he does not know what lies ahead.
“I’m afraid of it. I mean, I’m afraid of what Mike Johnson might do next after he’s gotten away with this. And it’s not just him. It’s — the Republican leadership team in the House has allowed this to happen. So we have the rank-and-file members like myself — conservatives in the House have to hold them accountable and make sure that nothing like this happens again before we get a new majority and, hopefully, elect a different speaker and have Donald Trump in the White House,” he added.
Breitbart News Saturday airs on SiriusXM Patriot 125 from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Eastern.