(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., offered glowing praise for Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., the man leading Democrats threatening to block the certification of a potential Donald Trump victory in 2024.
“Hakeem is a good man,” Johnson told Politico in an interview published Friday. “We’ve worked well together. We have a lot more in common than people might think. You know, he’s from New York and I’m from Louisiana.”
Johnson’s positive assessment of Jeffries followed the high-profile Democrat rallying his caucus to swiftly reject a motion to vacate the speakership led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
The speaker expressed his admiration for Jeffries as an individual and highlighted the commonalities between them.
“While we have lots of disagreements on policies and the fine points of policy, I think you can appreciate people for who they are as a person,” he stated, likely alluding to Jeffries’s far-left politics. “I think that’s what we’re called to do.”
Johnson further elaborated, “And he and I both kind of share the worldview on that. I can appreciate that he’s a good family man. We have a lot in common in that regard. And he lost his father recently, I lost mine three days before I got elected to Congress. We’ve talked about that.”
During the Politico interview, Johnson reflected on how both men ascended to power unexpectedly.
“We’ve talked about how he and I both came to our leadership positions in a rather circuitous fashion that neither of us predicted or expected, in terms of timing and how we would be elevated as we were,” he added.
Jeffries assumed the role of House minority leader after the 2022 midterm elections, following then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., stepping down from her leadership position after Republicans secured the majority.
Johnson became speaker in 2023 following the sudden removal of then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who faced a successful motion to vacate initiated by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla.
In contrast to Johnson’s situation, Democrats—despite previous assertions to the contrary—joined with eight Republicans to oust McCarthy as speaker. Consequently, McCarthy resigned from the House in December 2023.
Johnson’s unexpected allyship with Democrats arose after he was chosen to serve as speaker under the banner of being a staunch advocate of America First principles. However, Johnson has since supported the federal funding of the Biden administration’s leftist agenda and passed controversial foreign aid bills—including $65 million for Ukraine—all while failing to secure border funding (despite prior pledges).
He declined to terminate (or amend) the warrantless Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and rejected calls to defund the Department of Justice’s Special Counsel Jack Smith’s investigation of Trump.
In contrast, Democrats have successfully advanced nearly all of their policy agenda despite Republicans holding the majority.
This stands in stark contrast to Pelosi’s leadership during much of Trump’s tenure in Congress, where she consistently obstructed Trump’s requests for border funding.
Now with Jeffries leading the charge, some Democrats have indicated they would obstruct the certification of a potential Trump return to the White House if he emerges victorious in 2024 general election.
