Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Mike Johnson (LA-04)
WASHINGTON — This morning, at the weekly House Republican Leadership press conference, Speaker Johnson condemned the ongoing LA riots and Governor Gavin Newsom’s failed leadership, advocated for swift passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill to provide resources to besieged federal law enforcement officers, and discussed the House’s multi-pronged approach to reducing the deficit.
Watch the Speaker’s full remarks here
On the LA riots:
While the rioters have been burning police cars and looting storefronts and physically assaulting law enforcement officers, it’s important to remember how we got to this point, to this level of chaos, because this didn’t happen overnight. Four quick points to make us all remember. You know, we’re in a busy news cycle and people sometimes forget the facts, but the Biden Administration welcomed maybe as many as 20 million illegal aliens across that border and into our country in a four-year period. Sanctuary states like California rolled out the welcome mat. They embraced it. They offered aliens protection from federal law, think of it, they’re on the wrong side of the law. And they provided them with healthcare and housing and taxpayer-funded benefits. It’s truly almost unbelievable what these Democrat leaders of these cities and states have done.
President Trump delivered on an ironclad mandate from the American people, and just as we said, throughout the entire Biden administration disaster, the law always allowed the president to stop it. And President Trump did it. With bold visionary leadership, he stopped the invasion of our country and he engaged in the largest mass deportation effort in U.S. history. We’re in the midst of that right now. Rioters, acting on the words of politicians like AOC and Hakeem Jeffries, are trying to stop this effort by burning store fronts and endangering the lives of patriotic law enforcement officers. The contrast cannot be more clear.
On the failed leadership of Democrat leaders like Gavin Newsom:
Time and time again, innocent hardworking Americans have been harmed by the failed leadership of Democrat governors like Gavin Newsom. President Trump was absolutely right to send in the National Guard and to clean up for the governor’s failures. You know, Gavin Newsom has been in this effort for the last several months to try to reinvent himself, to rebrand himself. It’s pretty difficult to do when your state is a safe haven to violent criminal illegal aliens and you’re the one at the helm. You can’t hide this stuff. The President of the United States has a responsibility to maintain law and order, particularly when the lives and livelihoods of federal law enforcement officers are threatened. What we’re doing there with the federal forces is we are protecting federal buildings and property and personnel, and the President is showing strong leadership in doing so.
On passing the One Big Beautiful Bill to deliver resources to ICE and border patrol:
Because, you know, it’s those men and women, the federal law enforcement officers who deserve our support right now. And the One Big Beautiful Bill as Leader Scalise noted, delivers much-needed reinforcements. In this bill, we have funding to hire a minimum of 10,000 new ICE agents. We’re going to provide a $10,000 bonus to Border Patrol and ICE agents on the front lines. We’re going to include $45 billion to expand ICE detention capacity and $14.4 billion for air and ground transport to carry out at least one million deportations every single year. We’ll have to do that for quite some time because they let so many people in. We’re starting with the dangerous illegal aliens and that is exactly who the rioters and the politicians in California are trying to protect, and it’s incredible.
While Republicans are supporting the men and women of ICE through the One Big Beautiful Bill. Democrats are fighting for those illegal aliens and against law enforcement agents. They’re defending the violent anti-ice protesters in LA. They visited a violent MS-13 gang member and human trafficker in El Salvador. They charged an ICE facility and clashed with ICE officers – that was members of the House of Representatives doing that. They’re advocating for people to dox ICE agents and making them targets for threats from radicals. And they’re calling for the elimination of ICE.
On reducing the deficit:
This rescission package is a critical step, and it’s one of many. There will be several of these that will come from the White House, will work together with the administration to cut out all the fraud, waste, and abuse. We’re fighting a multi-front war against the deficit. Don’t get lost in this, okay? This is a multi-step process. I’ve tried to explain on all the interviews I’ve done over the last couple of weeks. The One Big Beautiful Bill is going to reduce spending by over $1.6 trillion, as has been noted this morning. The rescissions package will rescind $9.4 billion in wasteful spending, the first of many of those. The annual appropriations process will allow Republicans to further codify DOGE cuts and spend less money and be careful stewards of each dime. And the revenues found from the President’s tariff agenda will also reduce the deficit by $2.8 trillion over 10 years.
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