Mike Johnson Archives - News Now Warsaw

Local Democrat scoffs at GOP rhetoric before Saturday’s protests

Dan Spalding — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 10:29:57 +0000

By Dan Spalding
News Now Warsaw

WARSAW — Unlike previous political protests this year, top Republicans, including some in the Trump Administration, are openly demeaning those who plan to participate in Saturday’s No Kings rallies across the country.

Criticisms on the right have come from several high-profile officials in several regards.

House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a Republican, said protesters are being paid and supported by “well-organized” members of Antifa, which was recently declared by President Trump to be a terrorist group without evidence.

Republicans have also ramped up rhetoric in recent days, claiming that those protesters “hate America.”

On Thursday, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said the Democratic Party’s main constituency is made up of Hamas terrorists, illegal aliens, and violent criminals.

Robert Osbun, treasurer for the Kosciusko County Democratic Party, who has helped organize some of the more recent protests in Warsaw, was asked about the verbal attacks.

He said the new approach shows Republicans are worried about public opinion on numerous national issues trumpeted by Trump.

Suggestions that protesters are being paid have continued for months, but without evidence.

“You know it’s not true. Obviously, it’s not true. Nobody’s paying us,” Osbun said.

Claims that protesters hate America were amplified repeatedly in the past week.

“These are people who love our country more than anything. They’re not about to let Mike Johnson or anybody else tell them why they’re there,” Osbun said.

The newest round of protests coincides with a government shutdown that’s been underway for 16 days as of Friday. Democrats argue that Congress needs to extend federal support for Affordable Care Act premiums, which are set to expire at the end of the year.

Osbun said he expects protesters to rally behind numerous issues — as they have in the past — but that healthcare has become an important topic because so many Americans could see their premiums double or triple without federal support.

Hundreds of protests are scheduled for Saturday across the country.

The Warsaw rally is scheduled to start at 2:30 p.m. outside the Warsaw Community Public Library at the corner of North Detroit and Center streets.

The local forecast calls for a chance of rain on Saturday afternoon.

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Banks and Yakym oppose resolution, but government shutdown averted

AP News — Fri, 19 Jan 2024 12:01:09 +0000

Editor’s note: News Now Warsaw contributed to this report.

Associated Press

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congress sent President Joe Biden a short-term spending bill on Thursday that would avert a looming partial government shutdown and fund federal agencies into March.

Reps. Jim Banks and Rudy Yakym, representing much of Northern Indiana, were among the Hoosier Republicans who opposed passage of a continuing resolution.

They were among five Indiana Republicans who opposed the move that was supported by House speaker Mike Johnson.

Two Indiana Republicans who have announced their retirement, Reps. Greg Pence and Larry Busch, voted in support of passage.

The House approved the measure by a vote of 314-108, with opposition coming mostly from the more conservative members of the Republican conference. Shortly before the vote, the House Freedom Caucus announced it “strongly opposes” the measure because it would facilitate more spending than they support.

Nevertheless, about half of Republicans joined with Democrats in passing the third stopgap funding measure in recent months. The action came a few hours after the Senate had voted overwhelmingly to pass the bill by a vote of 77-18.

The measure extends current spending levels and buys time for the two chambers to work out their differences over full-year spending bills for the fiscal year that began in October.

The temporary measure will run to March 1 for some federal agencies. Their funds were set to run out Friday. It extends the remainder of government operations to March 8.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the president would sign the resolution and urged Republicans to quit wasting time on partisan spending bills.

“House Republicans must finally do their job and work across the aisle to pass full-year funding bills that deliver for the American people and address urgent domestic and national security priorities by passing the President’s supplemental request,” Jean-Pierre said.

Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has been under pressure from his right flank to scrap a $1.66 trillion budget price tag he reached with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer earlier this month for the spending bills. Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, said the continuing resolution passed Thursday will facilitate that agreement, and urged colleagues to vote against it.

“It’s Groundhog Day in the House chamber all the time, every day, yet again spending money we don’t have,” Roy said.

Johnson has insisted he will stick with the deal, and centrists in the party have stood behind him. They say that changing course now would be going back on his word and would weaken the speaker in future negotiations.

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said Americans expect Congress to govern and work in a bipartisan fashion.

“Some of my colleagues would see that this government would shut down and don’t care how hurtful that would be,” DeLauro said.

House Republicans have fought bitterly over budget levels and policy since taking the majority at the start of 2023. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted by his caucus in October after striking an agreement with Democrats to extend current spending the first time. Johnson has also come under criticism as he has wrestled with how to appease his members and avoid a government shutdown in an election year.

In Thursday afternoon’s vote, 107 House Republicans voted to keep federal agencies funded and 106 voted against the measure. To almost lose the majority of his conference underscores the challenges facing the new speaker and signals the difficulty he will have in striking a deal that will not alienate many of his GOP colleagues. They are clamoring for deeper non-defense spending cuts and myriad conservative policy mandates.

Meanwhile, 207 Democrats voted for the resolution and only two voted against.

The short-term measure comes amid negotiations on a separate spending package that would provide wartime dollars to Ukraine and Israel and strengthen security at the U.S.-Mexico border. Johnson is also under pressure from the right not to accept a deal that is any weaker than a House-passed border measure that has no Democratic support.

Johnson, Schumer and other congressional leaders and committee heads visited the White House on Wednesday to discuss that spending legislation. Johnson used the meeting to push for stronger border security measures while Biden and Democrats detailed Ukraine’s security needs as it continues to fight Russia.

Biden has requested a $110 billion package for the wartime spending and border security.

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Mike Johnson, a staunch conservative, is elected House speaker with broad GOP support

AP News — Wed, 25 Oct 2023 20:19:34 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans unanimously elected Rep. Mike Johnson as House speaker on Wednesday, eagerly elevating a deeply conservative but lesser-known leader to the major seat of U.S. power and ending for now the weeks of political chaos in their majority.

Johnson, 51, of Louisiana, swept through on the first ballot with support from all Republicans anxious to put the past weeks of tumult behind and get on with the business of governing. He was quickly sworn into office, second in line to the presidency.

“The people’s House is back in business,” Johnson declared after taking the gavel.

A lower-ranked member of the House GOP leadership team, Johnson emerged as the fourth Republican nominee in what had become an almost absurd cycle of political infighting since Kevin McCarthy’s ouster as GOP factions jockeyed for power. While not the party’s top choice for the gavel, the deeply religious and even-keeled Johnson has few foes and an important GOP backer: Donald Trump.

“I think he’s gonna be a fantastic speaker,” Trump said Wednesday at the New York courthouse where the former president, who is now the Republican front-runner for president in 2024, is on trial over a lawsuit alleging business fraud.

Three weeks on without a House speaker, the Republicans have been wasting their majority status — a maddening embarrassment to some, democracy in action to others, but not at all how the House is expected to function.

President Joe Biden congratulated the new speaker and said it’s “time for all of us to act responsibly” with challenges ahead to fund the government and provide aid for Ukraine and Israel.

“We need to move swiftly,” the president said.

In the House, far-right members had refused to accept a more traditional speaker, and moderate conservatives didn’t want a hard-liner. While Johnson had no opponents during a private party roll call late Tuesday, some two dozen Republicans did not vote, more than enough to sink his nomination.

But when GOP Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik rose to introduce Johnson’s name Wednesday as their nominee, Republicans jumped to their feet for a standing ovation.

“House Republicans and Speaker Mike Johnson will never give up,” she said.