Speaker Johnson Walks Back Support For Bill to Pay Military Members During Shutdown

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) walked back his willingness to hold a standalone vote to keep military members paid during the partial federal government shutdown.

While speaking with the press on Wednesday and railing against Democrats like Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Johnson was asked about keeping military service members paid during the shutdown, which is now in its eighth day. Johnson signaled on Tuesday that he would be open to a standalone vote on military pay, but he walked that back in his latest address.

“With regard to paying the troops, I want everybody to listen to me very carefully,” Johnson said. “Hakeem Jeffries and the House Democrats, as Leader [Steve] Scalise said so well, are clamoring to get back here and have another vote because some of them want to get on record and say, they’re for paying the troops. We already had that vote. It’s called the CR [Continuing Resolution].”

Johnson blamed Democrats for any missing pay for federal workers druing the shutdown.

“Of course, we want to pay our troops, and our air traffic controllers, and our Border Patrol agents, and TSA, and everybody else. We had that vote!” he said.

If a resolution is not reached by Oct. 15, American troops will miss a paycheck. Separate funding was put aside in most previous shutdowns. Johnson called the calls for a standalone vote an attempt to make “show votes” for political purposes.

On Tuesday, Johnson said he was open to just such a vote.

“We’re monitoring that day-by-day. I’m certainly open to that. We’ve done it in the past. We want to make sure that our troops are paid,” he said.

On Wednesday, Johnson accused Democrats of putting up a “fight” simply to look opposed to President Donald Trump. Democrats are calling for an extension of Affordable Care Act subsidies, warning millions of Americans could see their health insurance costs jump soon.

“The first responsibility of the government is to protect the people,” he said. “And the people who are supposed to be protected are being completely cheated by Democrats in the Senate because they wanna play politics. They hate Donald Trump! I mean, they have Trump Derangement Syndrome! It’s very real! Listen to their own comments. And they have to show a fight at any cost.”

Watch above via CNN.