by Ben Kew at thegatewaypundit.com
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul did not hold back in his criticisms of Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, accusing him of governing the country like a Democrat since assuming the role last year.
Paul made the comments in an interview with Maria Bartiromo, taking particular aim at Johnson’s willingness to support the passage of a $1.5 trillion spending bill.
“As I see it now, I’m not so sure there’s a difference between Mike Johnson being in charge and Democrats being in charge,” Paul explained. “The deficit this year will be 1.5 to 2 trillion dollars, and that’s Mike Johnson’s bill. He put it forward, he supported it with a minority of Republicans, with a majority of Democrats. This is not the using the power of the purse, this is abdicating the power of the purse.”
Paul also slammed Johnson for his willingness to reauthorize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) without a provision requiring warrants in order to spy on U.S. citizens.
He explained:
People have to be strong in their convictions. He was seen as a conservative before he came to the Speakership, but now he puts a tweet out the other day saying they whispered to him about 702, how important it is, and now he’s completely changed and lost all his principles on the idea that we shouldn’t spy on Americans without a warrant.