WASHINGTON, D.C. (NewsNation) — Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson seeks a one-on-one meeting with President Joe Biden to discuss foreign aid and border policies, as he continues to cast doubts about the future of the Senate-passed national security bill.
“For a month I’ve been asking to sit down with the president to talk about the border, talk about national security and that meeting has not been granted,” Johnson said during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol Wednesday. “I’m going to continue to insist on that because there are very serious issues that need to be addressed.”
“If the speaker of the House can’t meet with the president of the United States, that’s a problem,” Johnson said, adding, “I don’t know why they’re uncomfortable having the president sit across the table from me, but I will go in with good faith.”
The White House shrugged off Johnson’s request for a sit-down, saying the speaker needs to figure out what he wants.
“What is the one-on-one negotiation about when he’s been presented with exactly what he asked for,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Wednesday. “It’s almost as if the speaker is negotiating with himself.”
Biden previously met with Johnson and other congressional leaders to discuss the stalemate over border security and aid to Ukraine nearly one month ago.
On Tuesday, the Senate passed a $95.3 billion bipartisan foreign aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, that contained no border-related policies. The Senate’s 70-29 vote was supported by both Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Biden later urged House Republicans to pass the bill, warning that “history is watching.” But the measure faces opposition in the GOP-led House, where the speaker made it clear he would not put the bill on the floor without border security provisions.
“We are not going to be forced into action by the Senate, who in the latest product they sent us over, does not have one word in the bill about America’s border,” Johnson said. “Not one word.”
However, last week, House Republicans said a Senate bill pairing aid for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan with border security provisions was “dead on arrival.”
White House spokesperson Andrew Bates characterized the speaker’s border security argument as playing politics.
“For months, Speaker Johnson demanded that Ukraine legislation include border security,” Bates said in a statement. “But when given the opportunity to support the toughest, fairest bipartisan border bill in decades, he killed it — siding with Donald Trump and fentanyl traffickers over Joe Biden and the Border Patrol Union.”
“The only common denominator in Speaker Johnson’s dizzying border security tailspin is politics,” Bates added. “Speaker Johnson is damaging America’s national security, opposing bipartisan breakthrough after bipartisan breakthrough, in the name of politics. And the American people see through it.”
