‘Must Be Nice’: House Dem Mike Johnson Delayed Swearing In for 7 Weeks Reacts to Quick Ceremony for New GOP Member

(AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)

Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ), who waited seven weeks to be sworn in to Congress, took aim at House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for his quick ceremony for a new Republican congressman from Tennessee.

Johnson swore in Rep. Matt Van Epps (R-TN) Thursday after the Trump-backed candidate won a special election by nine points against progressive state lawmaker Aftyn Behn (D).

Grijalva, who famously waited nearly 50 days for her own swearing-in, posted a C-SPAN video of Johnson and Van Epps to X, writing, “Less than 48 hours after winning… must be nice.”

Grijalva won a special election to fill her late father’s seat on Sept. 23, but Johnson refused to integrate her into the House until after the government shutdown, which lasted until Nov. 10.

Her supporters claimed Johnson kept Grijalva officially out of office because she had vowed to cast the 218th vote needed to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. Johnson’s stalling prompted a lawsuit filed by Arizona’s attorney general that argued the Speaker was obligated to act.

When confronted, Johnson disparaged Grijalva on Fox News, saying, “She doesn’t know how it works around here. We’re going to give her the oath of office as soon as we get back to regular session.”

Johnson then told CNBC, “In the meantime, she can be working for her constituents. She has hired staff. I’ve noticed they keep doing stunt videos outside of her office, knocking on the door and pretending it’s closed. It shouldn’t be. She should be in there taking calls from her constituents and doing her job.”

Grijalva posted video to social media showing how she actually could not get down to work, as Johnson claimed.

“Look at what happened,” Grijalva said at the start of her video. “We got access to the office. Check out this super cool printer. I can’t print to it, though, because I don’t have a government email.”

She continued, “Check out this cool stack of laptops. Guess what? I can’t unlock them.”