Watch As Mike Johnson Schools Jake Tapper About Shutdown And Russ Vought

House Speaker Mike Johnson dismantled CNN host Jake Tapper’s talking points Thursday when pressed about the ongoing government shutdown and the role of Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought.

Vought announced plans Wednesday to cut more than 10,000 federal positions during the shutdown, advancing a long-standing effort to shrink Washington’s bureaucracy. When Tapper claimed on “The Lead” that the Trump administration was using the shutdown to fire federal workers, Johnson corrected him, saying that furloughed employees ultimately receive back pay under federal law.

“I mean, Russ Vought is taking this opportunity to fire workers because they want to reduce the size of the federal workforce. None of these people are being paid anyway. It’s not as though these furloughed workers are sapping up a budget. They’re not being paid,” Tapper told Johnson.

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“This is a very important distinction. Furloughed workers do get paid on the back end. They get that pay back to them. It’s reimbursed, as you know. That’s how it works. That’s the statute and the tradition and the practice,” Johnson said. “Russ Vought does want to reduce the size and scope of government, as does every common sense American, because the federal government is too big. It does too many things, and it does almost nothing well. (RELATED: Mike Johnson Says Schumer ‘Willing’ To Force Shutdown Because Someone Is ‘Coming For Him’)

Johnson said the Trump administration is handling a tough situation as best it can.

“The Trump administration is doing the very best they can with a very difficult situation. It is the Democrats who have voted now 10 times to keep the government shut down and require all of these reductions in force and the determination about what are essential programs, policies, and personnel and what are not,” Johnson said. “But this is an unenviable situation that no one in the White House relishes. The president asked Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer himself in the Oval Office, in my presence and with Leader Thune, to please not shut the government down.”

The shutdown entered its third week as thousands of federal employees worked without pay or remained furloughed, while President Donald Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday to use remaining congressional funds to continue paying active-duty service members.

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