House Speaker Mike Johnson unloaded on Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer during a Sunday morning interview, saying that the New York Senator was being intentionally dishonest about which party was driving the ongoing government shutdown.
Johnson joined anchor Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday” to discuss the shutdown and whether or not the end was in sight, and he argued that Schumer was allowing the federal government to stay closed in order to protect himself from the backlash he got for moving to keep the government open and avert the last potential shutdown in March.
WATCH:
.@SpeakerJohnson on the Democrat shutdown: “Chuck Schumer, when he voted for the EXACT SAME measure back in March, took a lot of heat from the left of his party, and he doesn’t want to sustain that any longer. So, he’s doing this and inflicting pain for his own selfish reasons.” pic.twitter.com/ZN8YS74p0C
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) October 12, 2025
Johnson first responded to Schumer’s repeated claims that Republicans could reopen the government any time they wanted to because they controlled the House, the White House, and the Senate.
“Chuck Schumer is incapable of telling the truth right now,” Johnson began. “I mean, he’s been in Congress for 44 years, Shannon, I mean almost half a century. He knows this is basic civics. Every eighth grade civics student can point out the fallacy in what he just said. It requires 60 votes in the Senate to get this through. We only have 53 Republicans. We’ve got to have a handful of Democrats in the Senate who apply common sense and agree to reopen the government so that we can continue all these discussions.”
Johnson went on to point out that the Continuing Resolution on the table – which would reopen the government temporarily and has already been passed by the House — would keep the current levels of spending as they are and give Congress time to negotiate any changes.
“We just need seven more weeks to finish it, and right now they’re eating up the clock. They’re doing this for political cover,” Johnson explained. “Chuck Schumer, when he voted for the EXACT SAME measure back in March, took a lot of heat from the left of his party, and he doesn’t want to sustain that any longer. So, he’s doing this and inflicting pain for his own selfish reasons.”