Speaker Johnson explained what is going on with Democrats and the shutdown as they lie and their lies are covered up by the media. [clip follows the partial transcript]
The Speaker first dealt with Democrats latest lie: Republicans control the entire government.
“First of all, we have to have Democrats to reopen the government. You know that in the Senate, it requires 60 votes to break an impasse. …
“Okay, hey fellas, remember from civics, you got to have 60 votes in the Senate. We only have 53 Republicans, so we must have Democrats to do it. The Democrats are out trying to claim that this is all on Republicans, because we control the government. We don’t control the Senate without 60 votes, so you have to have them now. They voted 13 times those Senate Democrats, counting the House and the Senate together, they voted 13 times to keep the government closed.
“And what they’re demanding as a ransom to reopen the government are some really crazy things they want. They want to restore $200 billion in health benefits paid for by US taxpayers, to illegal aliens and non-citizens. We can’t do that.
“They want billions of dollars in wasteful programs to be returned to foreign countries for things that none of you would agree with. We are not going to do that.
“They want a half a billion dollars to go back to left leaning news organizations paid for by taxpayers. We can’t do that.
“And then they want to cut $50 billion from the rural hospital fund that Republicans got signed into law July 4 to prop up health care in red states in rural areas around the country. It’s too important. But they want to take that away. They know that we can’t do it, and now that they’ve begun to admit what this is all about.
“Chuck Schumer said, every day of the shutdown gets better for us, meaning the Democrat Party. And you know, we had the top ranked, the second ranked Democrat in the House, the Minority Whip, who just said a few days ago, the end of last week, that we know that this is causing great pain for the American people, but we have to use this leverage we don’t have many times where we have leverage like this, and so they’ve shown you what the real motivation is. But ultimately, why are they doing all that?
“Let me summarize this really quickly, as simply as I can for the Civic students back home, Republicans are not demanding anything, literally nothing. All we want is to reopen the government. The Democrats are demanding all those things I just showed you on the chart, plus a lot more.
“When I say they want to send money to foreign countries, this is some of the things that they’re that they would propose that we spend money on again, they’re demanding this is a ransom to reopen the government.
“Things like $4 million for global LGBTQI plus awareness campaigns around the world. $4 million for the LGBTQI plus democracy grants in the Balkans.
“They want $2 million for feminist democratic principles projects in Africa. We’re not doing that. But again, the question is, why? Why this sounds crazy. It is. Why would they do this?
And what we saw on vivid display over the weekend was the Reemphasis of this fact this is motivated purely out of fear. What do we mean by that? You saw the Democratic Leader in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, endorse Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York City on Friday. It was, it was an illustration of what we’re facing here. The Democrats right now fear the far-left activists more than they fear air traffic controllers, border patrol agents, American service members and so many others missing their paychecks.
“They fear the Marxist insurgents like Mamdani. More than they fear families and children going hungry from last benefits that keep food on their tables, that they simply fear losing their own political positions next November, if they don’t appease the angry far-left base right now, and they will appease that base at any cost, no matter how much pain is inflicted.
“In fact, they’ve said in their own words, this gets better for us day by day. How does it get better? Because they’re proving to the angry, far -eft base in their party that they will prioritize them over the American people, and simply put, it’s the profound fear in the Democratic Party that drives the shutdown. It is not principle, it is not policy. It is certainly not concern for the constituents that they say that they want to represent. We know that because even their own constituents now are begging Democrats to stop the political games and reopen the government.
“Just yesterday, the largest union of federal workers, the very people that the Democrats claim that they fight for, came out publicly and urged the Democrats to join the Republicans in passing the House’s very simple, short term funding bill. Also yesterday, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association began to put up flyers in airports to explain the real danger that is being imposed for air travel, air safety in this country, highlighting what the Democrats are doing.
“So I just want to say this simply to our Democrat colleagues, you have an off ramp. Now you painted yourself into a corner, but here’s your off ramp. The unions, the largest unions, are saying, Please do this. You can claim that as cover and say that you had to do it, reopen the government, get it working for the people. It’s our number one priority and responsibility as members of Congress, but Senate Democrats have refused to do it for almost a month.”
“Now, I’ve said it over and over, Republicans have done our job. We passed the Clean short term funding extension to keep the lights on and pay all these workers and our troops and fund programs like snack SNAP and WIC that Americans need and rely on. And in the meantime, Republicans have been working very hard around the clock every day of this Democrat shutdown to do our best to reduce the pain for our constituents in our districts. “
This transcript covers a little more than half of the speech to 06:08 on the mark. He continued talking about how hard Republicans are working and what they are doing. He also addressed Autopen and investigations into the NBA betting and said they delivered more Epstein files. On the other hand, Democrats are making TikTok videos.
OMG good job Speaker of the house.!!! pic.twitter.com/M2CWcYpoWm
— Sami Nathaniel (@NathanielSami) October 28, 2025
I live in a rural Northwest community, and shop at the nearest town of any size (perhaps 10,000 residents), which is a hard-left, ‘artsy’ coastal town inhabited by worthless, over-educated, unemployable leftists who vote 80% Democrat. The Safeway store was virtually empty of customers this morning, telling me that most of these people use EBT cards to buy their food.… Read more »
Summary, evil Democrats, full of hate and jealousy, and not really caring who they hurt, have forced a government shutdown, acting like little brats sitting on the supermarket floor, screaming their heads ,off annoying everyone, because mommy would not give them the candy that is not good for their teeth,.