WASHINGTON — House Speaker Mike Johnson called on the Big Apple Thursday to scrap its “sanctuary” city status if it wants federal money to help house thousands of migrants pouring into the city.
In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview with The Post, the Louisiana Republican’s first with a major publication since seizing the gavel, Johnson said he was “certain” his fellow GOP lawmakers will stipulate a rollback of policies that restrict local police cooperation with federal immigration officials to deport migrants accused of serious crimes.
“I’m certain that will be one of our proposals, and it should,” the 51-year-old said.
President Biden has asked Congress to approve $1.4 billion for states and cities to fund shelter and services for migrants released at the US-Mexico border.
Mayor Eric Adams joined four other big-city mayors recently in asking for $5 billion.
“The idea that you would maintain a sanctuary city status and then cry out to the federal government for assistance in what you’ve done is, to me, unconscionable,” Johnson said.
The new speaker sat down for a half-hour chat in his office overlooking the National Mall and the Washington Monument just two weeks after his meteoric rise to lead the House, and with his voice nearly gone after marathon meetings on government funding ahead of a partial shutdown deadline Nov. 17.
Mayorkas ‘one of the worst Cabinet members ever’
Johnson also tore into the Biden administration’s mismanagement of the border crisis — calling Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “one of the worst Cabinet secretaries in the history of the United States.”
“What he has done is just inexcusable, because these are policy decisions,” he said.
“President Biden can’t help his age. In some ways, he’s not able to control what happens with the economy that they’ve created. But you could change the border policies overnight, and they are unwilling to do it.”
“And it is terribly destructive to our country in so many ways — six million people-plus have been apprehended at the border, 1.7 million getaways. Fentanyl has just led to an absolute catastrophe; the leading cause of death is overdoses for Americans aged 18-49, human trafficking, enriching the cartels, it goes on and on and on. And all of that traces back to their policy decisions.”
Biden impeachment push near ‘inflection point’
Johnson said that the impeachment inquiry into President Biden is nearing an “inflection point” after the Oversight Committee issued subpoenas on Wednesday to first son Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden.
The speaker declined to say when the House might vote on articles of impeachment against Biden — or confirm it could come before next year’s election.
“I don’t want to predetermine that or put it on a timeline because I think that would be a violation of the regular order of things and due process as well,” Johnson said.
“I think genuinely that the investigation should continue, they should put the evidence together … We have to follow the truth where it leads.”
The three committee chairmen leading the inquiry “have done it in a very respectable manner and in a way that can’t be impugned, and that’s really important because if this does proceed further, you will need the evidence to speak for itself, you’ll need an ironclad case and I think that they’re they’re doing their best to build that,” Johnson said.
Johnson served as a surrogate for ex-President Donald Trump during his two impeachments and says he still believes Democrats “weaponized” impeachment in both cases, with relatively quick investigations of Trump’s alleged pressuring of Ukraine to investigate the Biden family and his alleged incitement of the 2021 Capitol riot.
By contrast, the speaker said, the GOP inquiry into Biden has been “slow and very deliberative”
“We’re following the evidence,” he said, “and following the truth where it leads.”
Biden ‘probably’ soft on China due to ‘business relationships’
Johnson feels that the Biden family’s foreign dealings may be influencing US policy — including toward China, where Hunter and James Biden had two major dealings with state-owned entities over the past decade.
“I’m asked this question all the time when I do town halls back in Louisiana, and they want to know the answer: Why would he be soft on our adversaries, especially China? Why did they allow a Chinese spy balloon to float unimpeded across the country for eight days and do figure-eight circles above our military installations?” Johnson said.
“Why? Why would they do that?”
“Well, I have some theories about that. I think we all do. It probably has something to do with business relationships and may very well involve Hunter and James Biden and some of the deals they made over there,” he suggested.
“China has been very aggressive during the Biden administration, much more than during the Trump administration. I think we know why. You hear us say it all the time. Weakness invites aggression and we maintain peace through strength. That’s an old Reagan principle, but one that actually dates back to the Founders’ era.”
“We’re in a very dangerous time. And I think one of the reasons that we’re in a dangerous time is because the White House projects weakness every single day,” Johnson said.
No shutdown next week, steeper cuts needed after
Johnson predicted Congress would likely avert a partial shutdown before federal funding expires at 11:59 p.m. ET Nov. 17 by passing a continuing resolution, followed by individual spending bills in which he’d like to see cuts even deeper than the 1% outlined in a June debt-ceiling deal brokered by the White House and Republicans led by then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
“The 1% cut is good, but it’s not nearly enough,” Johnson said.
Still, with a continuing resolution in the works ahead of next week, “I think we’ll avoid a shutdown. I’ve been working around the clock, quite literally, for the last few days meeting with subgroups of members within my House Republican Conference,” he said.
“I’ve been at the table myself through these discussions. And I think that’s had the desired effect of showing the members that we’re serious about how we’re going to change the way Washington operates, how we do business here and this is a big part of that.”
Call for ‘conditions’ on US aid to Palestinians
Johnson also said he has spoken with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel’s ambassador to Washington about the need for “conditions” to be placed on $100 million in humanitarian aid Biden promised for the West Bank and Gaza last month.
The president unilaterally announced the humanitarian funding, which Johnson said had alarmed both US envoy Michael Herzog and Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, both of whom informed him the money could end up going to US-designated foreign terror groups.
Johnson echoed those concerns and said Herzog was preparing to call on the White House to impose restrictions on the humanitarian funds.
“They’re deeply concerned that it could get into the wrong hands,” the speaker said, “and we have good reason to believe that it would.”
‘Pure poetry’ to fund Ukraine with seized Russian assets
Johnson also said that he was interested in funding Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion with more than $300 billion in seized Kremlin assets — and that he’d like an auditor for the $113 billion already allocated before approving more.
“It would be pure poetry to fund the Ukrainian war effort with Russian assets,” Johnson said.
“As you can imagine, that idea has been met with great enthusiasm on the Republican side. I suspect it will be with our colleagues on the other side as well. It’s an eminently responsible thing for us to do.”
President Biden is pressing Congress to approve $61.4 billion for Kyiv’s war effort — without asking for it to be funded with Russian assets.
But House Republicans balked at Biden’s request to hitch it to $14.3 billion for Israel.
Johnson said he’s received few answers from the White House about US objectives in Ukraine amid increasing public opposition to further funding.
Soon after becoming speaker, Johnson said, he presented Biden national security adviser Jake Sullivan and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin with 12 questions about war aims and oversight of spending.
“Jake Sullivan told me that we would get these answers. I think they gave it a good faith effort, but they produced for us a 14-page document of responses that left much to be desired,” he said.
“We’re in the process of going back to the White House now and asking for further detail. There’s a lot of confusion, I think, because the White House has not been forthright or specific about what the goal, what the objective is there, how long this may last. They’ve not told us any of that.”
The House, Johnson added, was largely left in the dark about audits already done on funds spent on Ukraine, saying he only learned of the reports himself from CIA Director William Burns during a recent briefing.
“There’s over 20 reports that have been prepared, but many of the House members weren’t even aware of that,” Johnson said.
“The majority of those reports are not classified in their nature. And so we’re in the process now of collecting and disseminating that information to the membership as well because we have, again, a stewardship responsibility over this funding.”
Changes needed to domestic spying law
Johnson said that he favors changes to protect Americans’ privacy before reauthorizing Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, a significant electronic data interception law that expires Dec. 31.
US spy agencies say the law is essential for monitoring foreign terrorists and spooks, but civil libertarians in both parties have tried unsuccessfully to bar “backdoor” searches of incidentally collected domestic communications since the 2013 leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
“Many of us understand the importance of Section 702, but we also recognize the facts are clear that the authority that’s allowed under [the] statute has been abused in some cases, and you’ve had the privacy rights and the fundamental rights of Americans that have been jeopardized because of the way that statutory authority has been abused or misused,” Johnson said.
“And so I think there’s broad recognition, even across the aisle, that we need real reform. And so one of the proposals is that you would need effectively a warrant requirement for certain categories of that kind of surveillance. But again, it’s really important to our national security, we understand that we also have to safeguard constitutional rights.”
The speaker said the specific language on potential reforms is being developed by the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees.
“I don’t know where the final compromise will land,” Johnson said.
“The devil’s in the details.”
Antisemitism will not be tolerated in the House
Johnson also addressed the rise of antisemitism — from college campuses to the halls of Congress — while firmly rejecting any efforts by his party to quash free speech.
“I’m a constitutional law attorney; I used to litigate to protect free speech and religious liberty … and I believe that the price of free speech is that sometimes you have to be exposed to absolutely insane sentiments and crazy ideas and crazy voices,” he said.
“But as a conservative, in a general sense, a core principle of ours is that we do not seek to censor and silence voices that we disagree with,” he went on. “Cancel culture is an invention of the left — not the right. And so, in my view, I mean, the speech issue was a delicate one that we have to handle in the appropriate manner.”
“But the antisemitism is outrageous and should be condemned openly, and we should use our voices as loudly as we can to ensure that everyone knows this is not something that we stand for in America — and certainly not something that we tolerate in the House.”
Trump conviction would be ‘lawfare’
Johnson said that he won’t be scared away from supporting Trump if he is convicted in one of his four criminal trials and warned that such an outcome could harm public trust in the justice system.
“If President Trump is convicted on a classified documents error when, in my view, President Biden has even been more egregious in his handling — or mishandling of documents — parked out behind in the Corvette and all the rest. I think that that would be a dangerous prospect to have those two glaring inconsistencies right next to one another, especially in the midst of an election,” he said. “And I hope that it doesn’t come to that.”
“The way that the investigations and the indictments against President Trump have been used [is] quite clearly for overt political purposes. We call it lawfare,” Johnson added.
“One of the presuppositions in a constitutional republic is that the people will believe in the rule of law. They believe that Lady Justice has a blindfold and that everyone gets the same chance, the same assessment under the law, we have equal justice under the law.”
“And when you jeopardize that you jeopardize something very important, a foundational principle that maintains the Republic. And so I think what’s happened under [Attorney General] Merrick Garland and some of these lawless DAs, weaponized-system DAs, is that they have abused the process for their own political ends and it’s quite a dangerous thing.”
Extremist claims ‘nonsense’
Johnson told The Post he was taken aback after his election by criticism of his Christian faith and claims that he is anti-LGBTQ+ people — saying he believes everyone should be treated with “dignity and respect.”
“I’ve been very clear that I’m a Bible-believing Christian. And what’s interesting to me is that that is even noteworthy,” he said.
“In previous generations of America, almost all the Founders self-identified the same way, all the elected officials. It’s only recently that this has been viewed as some sort of controversy. “
“One of the things I’ve been accused of is that, ‘Oh, you’re going to force your religion on other people’ or something. That’s just nonsense,” Johnson said.
“Listen, everybody comes to Congress with their own convictions and beliefs. But we’re in a large deliberative body with 434 colleagues here. No one’s personal beliefs become law unless you can build consensus around it.”
Johnson’s past opposition to gay rights, including his support for restricting marriage to opposite-sex couples, has featured prominently in early profiles.
He told Fox News in an interview last week he doesn’t want to revisit Supreme Court precedents on gay rights.
“Anyone who has ever known or worked with us — anyone that the media has found to interview that actually knows us personally and professionally have all said that we love and treat everyone with dignity and respect,” he said.
“In fact, even the legal counsel on the other side of the marriage amendment litigation, they would say that we treated them just as we treat everyone else. We love everyone.
“I said I’m a Bible-believing Christian and remember, the greatest commandment in the Bible is that you love God with everything you have and you love your neighbor as yourself,” Johnson said.
“So if you truly believe in the principle and try to live it out, which we do, that means you don’t judge anybody, you love everyone, but you also believe in certain principles. And so those things are not incompatible.”
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