Senator Rand Paul Calls Out Johnson Over FISA

Last week, Speaker Johnson (R-LA) helped push through legislation that Republicans did not support.

The legislation was for the renewal of FISA, including section 702.

After the legislation passed, Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) accused Johnson of not holding his ground and standing firm on changes that Republicans wanted to see.

Don’t Give In

I am of the belief that FISA is needed, but that is has also been abused.

When the FBI used FISA to investigate Donald Trump, it clearly crossed the line, and before that legislation was passed, I firmly believed that new controls and assurances needed to be put in place to ensure what happened in that case never took place again.

Senator Rand Paul addressed some of these issues in scorching Speaker Johnson, who, by the way, has voiced complete support for Johnson as Speaker of the House.

Johnson even appeared at Mar-a-Lago last week during a press conference on election integrity with Trump.

Paul still had no problem ripping Johnson, stating, “FISA doesn’t obey the Fourth Amendment, and so Speaker Johnson was incredibly wrong.

“He broke the tie. He voted with the Democrats. Here we have the leader of the Republicans in the House votes with the Democrats against a warrant requirement.

“We also have Speaker Johnson voting for the spending package, once again with the majority of the Democrats.

“As I see it now, I’m not so sure there’s a difference between Mike Johnson being in charge and the Democrats being in charge.”

He later added, “But Johnson hasn’t held his ground.

“He has power, he has the majority. Use the power of the purse, Speaker Johnson. Do something to make us think you are different than the Democrats, but so far, I don’t see a lot of difference.”

I agree with Paul on this front, as I believe the House has been in complete and utter chaos since the GOP took it over.

To me, GOP leadership in the House remains weak and unaccountable, especially in terms of putting legislation on the floor without the Speaker and WHIP doing their jobs to ensure the caucus is on the same page.

It is hard to understand why Johnson, and formerly McCarthy, were even bothering to help Democrats when the Dems have made it clear they have no intention of helping the GOP pass any legislation that does not cower to the Democrat agenda.

I would love for our government to be able to have true bipartisan legislation where both sides can walk away from a win, but that all went out the window many years ago.

Now, the only way to get something approved is to have the White House and both chambers of Congress. If you don’t have that, you have nothing and can kiss your agenda goodbye, that is unless you have someone like Johnson or McCarthy holding the gavel in the House.