(Headline USA) House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., called for the firing of federal employees who were involved in a planned walk-out in protest of the U.S.’s continued support of Israel.
A report over the weekend revealed that hundreds of federal employees from 22 government agencies planned to walk out on the job on Tuesday to protest President Joe Biden’s handling of the war between Israel and Hamas, according to Axios.
The walk-out was being advertised by the leftist organization Feds United for Peace as a “Day of Mourning” to mark 100 days since Israel hit back at Hamas in Gaza following the terrorist group’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack.
Johnson said federal employees ought to be reminded whom they work for.
“Any government worker who walks off the job to protest U.S. support for our ally Israel is ignoring their responsibility and abusing the trust of taxpayers,” Johnson said. “They deserve to be fired.”
He also suggested that the Republican-controlled House of Representatives would take action against those who participate.
“Oversight Chairman Comer and I will be working together to ensure that each federal agency initiates appropriate disciplinary proceedings against any person who walks out on their job,” he added.
However, the House GOP was unlikely to see a unified front with the Biden White House in its efforts after a story in Axios on Sunday appeared to signal that the Democrat leader, who faced callse from activists within his own party chanting “F**k Joe Biden” over the weekend, is ready to break with conservative Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The article claimed that while the two leaders spoke regularly in the first 80 days, they have not done so since a tense Dec. 23 call that ended abruptly.
“The situation sucks and we are stuck,” an anonymous official told Axios. “The president’s patience is running out.”
The group behind Tuesday’s planned walk-out, Feds United for Peace, described itself as “a group of federal employees representing a range of federal agencies who believe it is our patriotic duty and moral imperative to urge our government to support calls for a ceasefire, and support humanitarian aid and access for Gaza.”
The organization is reportedly behind a number of recent actions taken by federal employees against the Biden administration, including several anonymous letters demanding that Biden call for a full ceasefire in Gaza.
The walk-out on Tuesday, however, is “something very unusual,” according to one of its organizers, in that now “the dissent [will be] manifested via a physical act.”
