‘It’s Surrender’: Jake Tapper Airs Brutal Montage of Republicans Criticizing Mike Johnson During Interview with Speaker

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) irked several members of the House Republican Conference on Wednesday by announcing upcoming votes on foreign aid packages without yet introducing a border security bill.

Last month, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) filed a motion to vacate the chair, putting Johnson on notice that he could be removed from his position by a vote of the full House. After the events of Wednesday, she seems poised to push the issue.

Johnson appeared on Wednesday’s edition of The Lead on CNN, where host Jake Tapper played a montage of House Republicans grumbling about the upcoming votes on aid – particularly for Ukraine.

So. some of your colleagues are blasting your plan to separate the bills,” Tapper said. “Here’s a little sampler that we’ve presented and prepared for you.”

“It’s surrender,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) said in the montage. “It’s disappointing. I won’t support it.”

“It’s disappointing,” Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) concurred. “It’s completely detached from what our base wants, what our voters want.”

“Go ahead, move it,” said Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX). “I’m voting no. I’ve never voted to give any money to Ukraine and I’m not gonna do it today.”

“I don’t know how long people are going to tolerate this because he’s doing nothing but serving the Democrats,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene added.

The clips ended and Tapper asked Johnson, “Are you going to have to rely on Democrats to pass the rule in order to bring these bills to the floor, and also the legislation itself?”

“Well, I hope not,” the speaker replied. “I hope that our Republican colleagues stand together, stick together on this. I think we understand–look, I’m a child of the 80s. I regard myself as a Reagan Republican. I understand the concept of maintaining peace through strength. That’s one of our guiding principles. That’s a really important philosophy and it’s a big part of our party and our worldview. And I think here is an opportunity to make that stand at a really critical time in world history.”

Johnson went on to note that the Republicans control the House by the narrowest of margins while Democrats control the Senate and White House.

“We’re not going to get 100% of what we want right now because we have the smallest majority in history,” he said. “And we only have the majority in one chamber– that Republicans run the House. We have the small majority in the House. The Democrats are in charge of the Senate and the White House. So by definition, we won’t get everything we want.”

Watch above via CNN.

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