House Speaker Mike Johnson responded tonight to claims made by Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona that he was refusing to seat her because she would back a petition that would force the House to vote on whether to release the Epstein files.
“Bless her heart,” Johnson said. “She’s a representative-elect. She doesn’t know how it works around here.”
Grijalva, a Democrat who has been left in congressional limbo since winning a special election for a House seat last month, countered on CNN several hours later: “How offensive and how patronizing, really?”
Grijalva, referring to a pair of Florida Republicans who Johnson swore in during a pro forma session in April, added of Johnson: “Your job as Speaker is to swear people in, whether you politically align with them or not, whether they’re going to sign a discharge petition that you want out or not.”