December 12, 2023
For Immediate Release
Contact: Taylor Haulsee
WASHINGTON — On Monday evening, Speaker Johnson attended the Wall Street Journal CEO Council. He sat down with Catherine Lucey of the Journal to discuss a range of topics, including his upcoming meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the national security supplemental package, border security, and the House impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Excerpts of the interview follow.
On the meeting with Zelensky: My Message is the Same as It’s Been to President Biden, We Need Border Security
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“My message to him (President Zelensky) will be the same as it’s been to the President and to Senator Schumer and all of our colleagues, is that we understand the crisis there. I understand the necessity of ensuring that Vladimir Putin does not prevail in Ukraine and march through Europe. I’m one who believes he would probably go to the Balkans or somewhere else next.
“And so this is an important battle for all the reasons we know. But I don’t think it is a radical proposition to say that if we’re going to have a national security supplemental package, it ought to begin with our own national security first. I’ll explain to him that while we understand that, I’ve made my position very clear, literally since the day I was handed the gavel, that we have to take care of our border first in our country.
“And that’s what the American people, I think, demand most of them. They’re duly concerned about this. And I think we can do both things. But we really need the White House and the Senate Democrats to participate in that, and I think they will.”
Speaker Johnson on Ukraine Aid: I’ve Been Consistent, We Need Clarity on Strategy
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“Well, if the President thought it was such an urgent matter, he could have been dealing with us for the last six weeks. We’ve literally not had any movement from the other side. And this is a deep concern to me as it is to all of you. I want you to know that the day after I was handed the gavel, I went to the Situation Room and sat down with Jake Sullivan, National Security Adviser. I’ve spoken to the Secretary of Defense about this, Secretary of State. We have made the position very clear that we needed further clarity.
“Part of the problem with the Ukraine funding and the reason so many of the American people are concerned about it is that there’s been no real clarity on what the strategy is, what the endgame is, how we’ll have proper oversight over the dollars that have already been spent or the money that’s being requested now. I do not think it is an unreasonable thing to ask for those things. So, I’ve done it multiple times, in the SCIF, in the situation room, privately, publicly, most recently late last week at the congressional auditorium in front of all of our peers. I said the exact same message that I’ve been saying since October 26th. And even as we sit here tonight, the White House has not provided that clarity. I think the American people are owed that.”
Speaker Johnson on Impeachment: We have a Responsibility to Follow the Facts Wherever they Lead
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“Well, I’m a constitutional law attorney. I had the dubious distinction or the request to serve on the impeachment defense teams twice. They did that to President Trump twice. And that’s not an expertise ever thought in law school I would need to develop. But I was on record hundreds of times lamenting that the Democrats at that time, I think, politicized impeachment, politicized the process. And I think they did real damage to our system and the institutions in in that process.
“Next to a declaration of war, I think the impeachment power might be the heaviest that the House has specifically, as you know, under the Constitution, it’s given to the House. And it’s not something to be taken lightly. I think that the House, it is incumbent upon us under the circumstances presented in this case to investigate properly, do it methodically, slowly, deliberately, not in a political manner, and to follow each truth where it leads.
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