‘Leadership Is to Blame’: GOP’s Hawley Takes a Swipe At Speaker Johnson Over Possible Government Shutdown

As another deadline closes in, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) said on Tuesday he was “very optimistic” that Congress would keep the government open and prevent it from shutting down. But earlier the same day, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) blamed “leadership” for not getting this done months ago.

CNN’s Manu Raju filed his report on the frustration over Congressional funding, and Hawley’s comments on members of both parties in both parts of Congress — the House and the Senate — stood out:

Hawley: This was supposed to be done in September. I mean, this is now almost March? Well, this is just ridiculous. They have agreement on the top line. They’ve had it since January. This is why I voted against the last CR. They’ve just been kicking the can down the road. I can’t believe that they didn’t get work done over the weekend. They had months to do this stuff. I mean, I — my patience has run out.

Raju: So who’s to blame?

Hawley: Leadership is to blame.

Raju: Which leadership? Both sides?

Hawley: Yeah, of course. Yeah, all of them. Yeah. They’re all the blame. I mean at this point it’s just it’s absurd, I think.

After the clip with Hawley, CNN’s Dana Bash had a brief giggle over the exchange:

Manu, it’s so funny that Senator Hawley is trying to sound frustrated, but he’s almost, it’s hard for him to hide how much he’s enjoying throwing the grenades from the sidelines on the leadership of both parties.

Watch the video above via CNN.