CNN’s Manu Raju Confronts Mike Johnson About JD Vance Challenging U.S. Judicial Rule — Speaker Says VP ‘Totally Right’

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) declared on Tuesday that he “wholeheartedly” agrees with Vice President JD Vance’s claim that judges “aren’t allowed to control” the executive branch.

Vance’s comment came in response to a federal judge temporarily halting Elon Musk and DOGE’s  access to personal and sensitive data held by the Treasury Department.

“If a judge tried to tell a general how to conduct a military operation, that would be illegal. If a judge tried to command the attorney general in how to use her discretion as a prosecutor, that’s also illegal. Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power,” Vance wrote on X, quickly earning pushback from critics.

At a Tuesday press conference, CNN chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju confronted Johnson about Vance’s take, and Johnson said he completely backs his “friend” Vance’s position.

“Should they comply with the courts’ demands?” Raju asked about the administration, noting that both Democratic and Republican-appointed judges have opposed some early actions from the White House.

“Of course the branches have to respect our constitutional order but there’s a lot of game yet to be played. This will be appealed, we’ve got to go through the whole process, and we’ll get the final analysis. In the interim, I will say that I agree wholeheartedly with Vice President JD Vance, my friend, because he’s right,” Johnson said.

The Republican leader argued that DOGE has only been appointed with its current task of slashing government spending because the elected lawmakers in Congress have been unable to do so.

According to Johnson:

There is a presupposition in America that the commander in chief is going to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars, that the commander in chief, the president of the United States is going to command those within his branch of government to do the right thing by the people, to be accountable, to not fund drag shows in Middle Eastern countries or South America, to not waste our taxpayer dollars, and that’s what has been uncovered and that’s why we and the people are applauding what’s happening right now under the administration because they’ve taken that seriously. And they’re doing it, the forensic audits, effectively, that DOGE and Elon Musk are leading. I met with Elon yesterday about this to get an update and to me it’s very exciting what they’re able to do because what Elon and the DOGE effort is doing right now is what Congress has been unable to do in recent years because the agencies have hidden some of this from us. You know, there’s a lot of oversight activity that goes on around here, you all know, but when duly elected representatives of the people request information to find these abuses and it’s not turned over to us, what it takes is an actual audit of the systems and the files themselves that are often hidden from Congress. That’s what you’re seeing right now. And that’s what’s so exciting. They’re uncovering things that we have known intuitively have been there, but we couldn’t prove it. Now the proof is being provided. And no one can argue the counter to that. So stay tuned. There’s a lot more to come. And I think the courts should take a step back and allow these processes to play out. What we’re doing is good and right for the American people. What DOGE is doing is making sure that your taxpayer dollars, all of ours, are spent in the way that they’re intended to be spent and that it’s in America’s interest and they’re responsible with the precious taxpayer’s money.

Watch above via CSPAN.

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