Mike Johnson says Schumer ‘willing’ to force shutdown because someone is ‘coming for him’

House Speaker Mike Johnson appeared on Fox News on Monday and accused Democratic Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer of deliberately risking a government shutdown to appease the far-left wing of his party.

President Donald Trump met with congressional leaders on Monday, but both sides left without a deal as Democrats demanded healthcare concessions, and Republicans insisted on a clean funding extension. In an appearance on “Hannity,” Johnson said Democrats refuse to back off their “radical” demands, including restoring benefits for illegal immigrants that were eliminated in the House-passed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” funding left-leaning media, and approving $1.5 trillion in new spending to keep the government open for just seven weeks.

“I fully expected that they would come into the White House today and be reasonable. But they weren’t. They dug their heels in. It’s painfully obvious that he’s got to watch his back because the young socialists are coming for him, AOC and the others, who want to challenge him for his seat,” Johnson said. “And that is 100% what Chuck Schumer and Hakeem Jeffries, by extension, are watching for. Their own political cover.”

Johnson said Monday that Democrats are prepared to inflict serious damage to the country just to shield themselves politically.

“They will exact all this damage that we just heard them say in their own words, in previous years. They are willing to do it just so they get political cover. They haven’t backed off on any of those demands, Sean. You had it right. They want to take hard-earned taxpayer dollars, and they want to give new benefits to illegal aliens,” Johnson added. “We eliminated that in our Big, Beautiful Bill. They want to bring it back. They want to prop up NPR and PBS. They want $500 million. That’s their demand in their counteroffer to prop up the Corporation for Public Broadcasting again.”

Johnson said Democrats are pushing a $1.5 trillion stopgap bill loaded with partisan spending.

“We’re not doing that. Left-leaning media outlets don’t need to be funded by taxpayers. They want to spend $1.5 trillion on a simple seven-week stop-gap funding measure so our appropriators can get back to the job of just funding the government,” Johnson added.

Trump canceled a planned meeting with top Democrats last week, rejecting what he called their “unserious and ridiculous demands” just days before a potential government shutdown. Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had requested the sit-down. Trump said any deal seemed unlikely under their terms.

Senate Republicans will need at least some Democratic support to overcome the 60-vote filibuster and pass a government funding bill. The House narrowly approved a GOP-backed stopgap measure, but nearly every Democrat voted against it — putting the government at risk of a shutdown if lawmakers fail to reach a deal before midnight on Sept. 30.

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