The Republican Party criticized the “No Kings” protests held across the country on the 19th against President Donald Trump’s governance, saying “there was a lot of hate messaging, and it wasn’t pro-American.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, said in an ABC interview that day, “The groups that I listed were definitely part of those protests.”
In a press conference on the 15th, three days before the “No Kings” protests, Johnson had claimed that the protests would “have a lot of Hamas supporters, people from Antifa (anti-fascist groups), Marxists.”
Speaker Johnson said of the peaceful nature of the protests, “We congratulate them for exercising their right to free speech without violence,” but added, “The irony in their message is clear.”
He continued, “If President Trump were truly a king, the government would be operating normally by now. If President Trump were a king, they wouldn’t be exercising that freedom of speech on the Mall (the National Mall in Washington, D.C.).”
This means that if President Trump had exercised the power of a tyrant as the protesters claimed, not only would the anti-Trump protests never have taken place, but there would have been no government shutdown due to Congress’ failure to pass the budget bill.
Johnson targeted the Democrats regarding the background of the protests, saying, “They needed a stunt. (Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.) needs a political shield right now. That’s why he shut down the government, and this (rally) is part of that.”
Speaker Johnson then said of the Democratic Party’s nomination of Zoran Mamdani, a radical leftist, as the mayor of New York City, “They’re trying to elect an openly socialist and Marxist as mayor of America’s largest city,” and that “Marxism is spreading within the Democratic Party.”
Speaker Johnson repeatedly criticized the Democrats for opposing the Republicans’ stopgap budget bill, which calls for extending Obamacare subsidies, saying, “The Democrats are trying to restore free health care to illegal immigrants at our taxpayer’s expense.”
Appearing on the same program, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said, “We will not support the Republicans’ partisan budget proposal. As a result of the Republicans’ refusal to extend Obamacare subsidies, tens of millions of Americans have seen their insurance premiums and out-of-pocket costs skyrocket, leaving them unable to see a doctor when they need it.”