House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday emphasized Congress’s recent legislative victories, indicating it is returning to regular order. He also disputed suggestions that President Donald Trump is in the Epstein files and revealed that the GOP-controlled House will more than likely pass a measure this week to release many of the files tied to Epstein.
Johnson recognized that it could “seem like a low bar,” but he said Congress is returning “to the way it’s supposed to work” so that it can better “steward” taxpayers’ dollars.
“We are returning to regular order—the way this [Congress] is supposed to work,” said Johnson, R-La., on “Fox New Sunday” during an interview. “I’m very proud of this achievement, having three bills signed into law Wednesday night.”
He added that some House Republicans did “some of the best work of their careers” during the shutdown because they were home with their constituents.
“Remember, the Democrats in Congress voted 16 times to keep the government closed—to bring on the longest shutdown in government history—and to exact all this pain on the people,” Johnson stated. “And it was all for naught. They got nothing out of it.”
“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it. He does not,” Johnson declared.
Johnson went on to argue that Trump isn’t worried about accusations of his name being in the Epstein files.
“I talk with him all the time. He has nothing to do with this. He’s frustrated that they [Democrats] are turning it into a political issue, and it’s not surprising because the Democrats have nothing else to talk about,” Johnson said.
The Epstein files are Democrats’ “entire game plan,” and that’s why Johnson said he “offered them on the floor to pass by unanimous consent the discharge petition.”
“Guess who objected? The Democrats. If they were really for transparency, if this is really about helping victims and all that, they would not have stopped the passage of the discharge petition,” Johnson said.
So the discharge petition will be on the floor again next week, Johnson explained, adding that he suspects “there will be lots of votes that will just get this done and move it on.”
“There’s nothing to hide, and the Oversight Committee is releasing far more information than the discharge petition little gambit ever even anticipated,” Johnson said. “The discharge is totally moot. It is a political exercise, and we’re going to dispense with that this week.”
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie predicted “100 or more” House Republicans could vote in favor of releasing files and documents this week.
“I think we could have a deluge of Republicans,” Massie said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” when asked by Jonathan Karl about GOP support for the vote. “There could be 100 or more.”
Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) spearheaded a successful discharge petition, which set up a vote in the House to force the Trump administration to divulge additional information concerning Epstein. Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, stated that the lower chamber is likely to vote on the bill this week.
On Sunday, Massie said he hopes to get a veto-proof majority of two-thirds of both Democrats and Republicans to back the initiative. All Democrats and only four Republicans, including Massie, signed the petition.
“I would remind my Republican colleagues who are deciding how to vote — Donald Trump can protect you in red districts right now by giving you an endorsement,” Massie said. “But in 2030, he’s not going to be the president, and you will have voted to protect pedophiles if you don’t vote to release these files, and the president can’t protect you then.”
“The record of this vote will last longer than Donald Trump’s presidency,” he continued.