LIVE: House GOP Leadership Hold Post-Meeting Press Conference

Good morning. The world is watching as the leadership of our so-called elite colleges and universities continue to fail to condemn anti-Semitism and protect Jewish students on campus. Just look at the abject failure of Columbia's president to enforce their own code of conduct that they gave lip service to during the recent education and workforce hearing. Last night, the pro-Hamas anti-Semitic mob took over an academic building. The university leadership has lost complete control. It is a disgrace and it is untenable and we, as House Republicans, will hold them to account. I will continue to lead on this issue and House Republicans will expand our efforts on oversight with additional committee chairs with an announcement later today. Also in New York, we are now in week three of Alvin Bragg's witch hunt, the first criminal trial of a former president of the United States. It is crystal clear from the opening arguments and evidence that this extraordinarily weak case is blatant lawfare and election interference during the height of the presidential campaign. While the violent crime crisis rages in New York, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg brought bogus felony charges against President Trump for the non-felony of booking a 2017 nuisance claim as a legal expense. Under this bogus legal theory, this somehow impacted the election. This theory is so baseless that it was previously passed over by the prior Manhattan DA, the Manhattan U.S. attorney, the Federal Election Commission and Alvin Bragg himself. But a top political appointee in the Biden Justice Department was deployed to Bragg's office to go after Joe Biden's top political opponent and the Republican nominee, Donald J. Trump. And the case is in front of the Democrat judge Juan Merchant, who donated to Biden's campaign and whose daughter is raising tens of millions off this unprecedented case. This is corrupt election interference to its core. Even a former Clinton federal judge said Judge Merchant must recuse. What was Merchant's response? He retaliated against President Trump with an unconstitutional gag order. Last week, the House Judiciary Committee, under the leadership of Chairman Jim Jordan, released a scathing report highlighting Bragg's political investigation and prosecution of President Trump, calling it a direct threat to our republic. Democrats' corrupt and desperate witch hunts against President Trump must come to an end. This is lawfare and blatant election interference, and the American people know it. That is why today I filed an official complaint with the Department of Justice Office of Professional Responsibility on Joe Biden's special counsel, Jack Smith, for his clear and illegal efforts of election interference. We will fight the Democrats' unjust lawfare and expose this corruption, whether it is in New York, Atlanta, or here in Washington, D.C. This is an important responsibility of our oversight. In addition to this important oversight work, legislatively, House Republicans are continuing to lead on behalf of the American people. This week, on the House floor, we have a series of bills to protect America's public lands while ensuring the safe, reliable development of our natural resources. We are also marking the start of National Small Business Week, the backbone and economic engine of our country. Today, we are joined by two chairs, our Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, Bruce Westerman, and Chairman of the Small Business Committee, Roger Williams, to discuss in more detail. I am proud to turn it over to Chairman Roger Williams from Texas. Thank you, Elise. Mr. Whip, Mr. Speaker, thank you for your leadership. This is going to be a great week. We have the National Small Business Week ahead of us, and I will tell you, small business makes up the backbone of this country. Seventy-five percent of the workforce, 75 percent of the payroll is generated by small business. We are going to be highlighting small business this week and talk about the jobs it creates and talk about the role the private sector plays in, frankly, saving our country. Small business is in every industry, and it is in every community. So, tomorrow, we are going to have an HBC 201 from 3 o'clock to 4.30, 14 businesses from across the country coming to the Capitol to show what they do and how they do it and maybe talk about the great things that are happening to them and some of the regulations that are choking them to death. We are going to have bakers. We are going to have distillers. We are going to have—ammo manufacturers are all going to be displaying their products and talk about the challenges they are facing. And I will tell you, there are plenty of challenges from this administration. Since Joe Biden has gotten in office, there has been $1.3 trillion of regulations put on Main Street America—$1.3 trillion. And in a time it is hard to hire people right now, it is meaning that we have got to spend $200 million man-hours to offset the $1.3 trillion that the government and the Biden administration has put on small business. So, we are going to talk about that. But the goal of our committee—we actually have a bipartisan committee doing great things together—but our goal is to be a voice for Main Street, be a bipartisan committee, be pro-business, have pro-business policies, cut regulations and lower taxes. Cutting regulations puts more money in the hands of the business to give service to the customer who, at the end, is who we want to help. And we have got to lower taxes. We have got to make sure that taxes stay low because lower taxes mean more cash flow to the business. So, a lot of things are happening. We want you all to come by and see it. But it is a great time in America to honor small business, the backbone of this great country. And with that in mind, it is an honor to deliver Congressman Westrom, my dear friend from Arkansas. Thank you, Roger. Thank you, Elyse, and Speaker and Leader in the WHIP. It is a privilege to be here to get to talk about something very important about our public lands. You know, it was not too long ago we passed the EXPLORE Act, a very bipartisan bill. And it is bicameral. It is over in the Senate right now. And it shows that there is a desire from the public in America to experience our public lands. But we are dealing with an administration that it seems like every week they are coming out with a new rule or a new regulation that restricts access to our public lands. Just two weeks ago, Biden's Bureau of Land Management enacted a final rule that would cut off access for hundreds of communities that depend on multiple use of their public lands. And this administration is threatening the rural way of life. We are fighting back with bills like Congressman Curtis's West Act. This week, we are advancing important solutions to help meet the skyrocketing global demand for minerals and natural resources. With China, Russia, and other adversaries aggressively expanding their malign influence across the globe, it is time to say yes in my backyard to the safe, reliable, and environmentally friendly development of America's abundant national resources. You know, as you look at the demand for minerals and rare earth elements, especially with the push to a more electrified economy, we're blessed in America because we have every element and mineral that we need here in America. The problem is it's in the ground. And this administration had rather buy these things from China and our adversaries than to develop them here in the U.S. And we're pushing back against that. We're also promoting access to federal lands and returning power back to the states, the tribes, and the local leaders who know these lands best. This is the only way we will implement true conservation for generations to come. I look forward to the passage of these very important bills, and I'll now turn it over to our whip. For more than a week, the world has watched as pro-terrorist anti-Semites at American universities exude some of the clearest acts of bigotry against Jewish students on campus since the late 1930s in Nazi Germany. From forming human chains around Jewish students to block them from walking on campus, to chanting for the total annihilation of Israel, to promoting Hitler's final solution. It's safe to say these demonstrations are not a movement for peace, as some of our colleagues on the other side of the aisle have disgustingly referred to them. They are movements of pure anti-Semitic violence. And let's take note of those who've endorsed these pro-terrorist anti-Semites. A terrorist organization, Hamas. The world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, Iran. And members of the squad, including my colleague from Minnesota, Ilhan Omar. Not exactly good company. Congresswoman Omar encouraged these movements for hate at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus, promoting me to inquire with the university about its plans to keep Jewish students safe. She then continued to pour gas on the fire when she visited Columbia to publicly suggest that some Jewish students are pro-genocide. Let me be clear. By embracing pro-terrorist extremists, Ilhan Omar is encouraging violence against Jewish students. There should be zero tolerance for anti-Semitism on our college campuses, in our communities, or anywhere across our country. Joe Biden has tried to play both sides of the fence by defending everyone involved. Since President Joe Biden, far-left congressional Democrats, and Ivy League administrators have chosen to side with Hamas over protecting Jewish students, House Republicans are going to do our job for them by voting on Congressman Mike Lawler's legislation that holds these anti-Semites accountable by requiring schools to treat acts of anti-Semitism as any other act of discrimination. Our House Republican majority will once again take a stand where others have failed. I can only hope that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle will choose to be on the right side of history and join us. And with that, I turn it over to our leader, Steve Scalise. Thank you, Whip. Last week, I brought a number of members of Congress from around the country down to South Louisiana to look at some different energy facilities throughout South Louisiana. We went to Chevron's anchor platform in the Gulf of Mexico, a facility that's going to be coming online in the next few months to produce over 70,000 barrels of oil a day. And while we were excited to be there, what is disappointing is that because President Biden continues to cancel legislatively mandated lease sales, fewer of those kind of projects will be coming online. And what that means is our country, America, will now be more reliant on foreign nations because we still have a growing demand for oil, for natural gas, for all forms of energy. And if President Biden takes American energy offline, that means we have to get it from other countries, which President Biden has done. He's made us more dependent on countries like Russia, like Iran, like Saudi Arabia. And so when you look at, you know, if he's worried about carbon footprints, there is no lower carbon footprint to produce oil in the world than in the Gulf of Mexico. We should be doing more projects like that, not fewer. Then we went to the mouth of the Mississippi River, the Venture Global project, which is one of the largest LNG export facilities in the world, over $20 billion of privately funded capital to build a massive facility. It shows you what American ingenuity can do. Again, exciting to look at it, exciting to know what our country can do to not only produce natural gas, lower the cost for families here at home, but then export it to our friends around the world. A lot of the natural gas at that Venture Global facility is going to be going to Europe when it's completed. The problem is, again, because President Biden's policies, now he's put, in essence, a ban on LNG exports. And while he tries to deny to all of you that it exists, they told us right down the street, literally right down the Mississippi River, there is a huge plot of land where they could build another facility even larger. Again, over $20 billion privately funded, and they would have contracts for over 20 years in place to go tomorrow if they could get the permit, but they can't because this administration refuses to do it. And why is that important? Again, it doesn't mean that natural gas isn't going to be used anywhere in the world. It just means Vladimir Putin will be supplying natural gas, in this case, think about these two countries, in this case, to Germany and Poland. Natural gas that America could be providing to our allies. Our allies would much rather get that natural gas from us, and it would help lower gas prices here. It would lower energy costs for families when they heat or cool their homes. It would also create really, really good jobs here in America, but Joe Biden keeps saying no to American energy, which means Vladimir Putin gets to sell that natural gas to those European countries, putting billions of dollars in the pocket of Vladimir Putin. Why would Joe Biden continue to do it? It begs the question. It's why we're bringing these bills that Bruce Westerman's committee produced out of natural resources to open up more federal lands so that we don't have to be dependent on China for car batteries, for goodness sake, on Russia or Iran for oil or natural gas. Again, these bad decisions by the Biden administration don't just raise costs for families, which, by the way, they do. They're crushing low-income families here in America, but they also have serious implications on America's energy security. And so we're going to continue to bring these bills. You think about Section 1002 of ANWR, a bill that we had opened up in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act for exploration. Great American energy in Alaska. The people of Alaska, by the way, want that project to go forward, but Joe Biden continues to say no to that American energy, which only emboldens people like Vladimir Putin. Why does Joe Biden want to continue helping Vladimir Putin and hurting Alaskan families and other families here in America? We're going to continue, as House Republicans in this majority, to fight for those hardworking families who are struggling to stand up to the anti-Semitism. We're going to have a press conference later to talk about the growing concerns on our college campuses where college presidents are failing miserably to protect Jewish students and their ability to be safe just to go to school, just to go to class. These presidents are failing them, and we're going to talk more about that later. And the Mike Johnson. Well, thank you, Mr. Leader, and thank you all for being here this morning. This is a pivotal time in the country. The Speaker's job is to be all across the country and to be in as many districts as possible with our incumbents and our candidates, and we do all of that. Over the last week, I spent time in my district in Louisiana, but I also traveled to nine different states, and we went from the Deep South to the Midwest, even New York City. And everywhere we go, there is an energy out there among the people that they're very animated because the people are simply fed up. They're fed up with the way things are going. They're fed up with the open border and all the catastrophe that that has brought upon the country. They're fed up with the rising crime rate and the rising cost of living that's making it unmanageable for hardworking families. They're fed up about the weakness that we are projecting on the world stage at a very dangerous time. The reason our adversaries are acting so provocatively is because this administration is unable or unwilling to show strength on the world stage. And that same vacuum of leadership is being felt at this really critical time, this moment in our cultural history, in the history of our country, with regard to the rise of anti-Semitism. We desperately need, the country needs, clear moral authority. We need the President of the United States to speak to the issue and say, this is wrong. What's happening on college campuses right now is wrong. It is un-American. It is not who we are. The President seems unable or unwilling to do that. The Vice President, the same thing. Chuck Schumer, who is the highest ranking Jewish official in the history of the United States, is not speaking to this issue. And that is why we feel a direct obligation to do that. The Congress has a role. We went to Columbia University on Wednesday. We faced that hostile crowd to speak clearly with clarity and conviction and consistency about this issue. This is not free speech. I'm a constitutional law attorney. I used to litigate free speech cases with regard to campus expression on university campuses. This is not the free marketplace of ideas. This is open threats to Jewish students because of their faith and who they are. Jewish students are unable to go to class. The administration at Columbia acknowledged that because they canceled classes for fear of physical safety of their students. Then they came up with this hybrid solution, which is even more discriminatory because it's only the Jewish students who then are admonished and encouraged not to come to class. That's not right. Before we went out and had the press conference, we met with a large number of Jewish students there on the campus at a safe house off campus. And they expressed their angst with all of this, their concern, their fear for their safety, and the intuitive feeling that we all have that this is not right and it needs to be called out. So then we went and met with the college president, Shafik, and we told her that it is time for her to resign. If she can't control that campus, the first responsibility of an administrator on the university campus is the safety and security of their students. If one fails in that obligation, they have failed entirely. Columbia is out of control. In the last several hours, overnight, I think they overtook a campus building. They're occupying a building now. They're unable to operate the university at a time when the students are preparing for their final exams. It's unfair, it's unright, it's unsafe, and it must stop. So we called for the police to come in and take care of it. If they're unable, then we need the National Guard. We have to have control of campuses. This is a common sense matter. The crowd in Columbia was chanting for Hamas. They're waving Hezbollah flags, Hamas flags. Hamas endorsed the crowd in the protest within an hour before we began to speak there on Wednesday. This thing is out of control, and the administrators who are allowing this need to be removed, and we've got to get control of these campuses. End of story. And we're going to continue to call this out. We're going to continue to call it for what it is. Another thing that the American people are very frustrated about, of course, as the leader mentioned and as all of us have referenced, is this administration's war on American energy. That's effectively what it has been. Since the day Joe Biden walked into the Oval Office and started issuing his barrage of executive orders, they have gone after the very lifeblood of the economy. Energy security is national security. And with his executive orders, and the most recent one where he's paused LNG exports, he is empowering our adversaries. Vladimir Putin's war machine is being funded by European nations who are having to make contracts with him because they can't get liquefied natural gas from the U.S. They desperately need it. They want it. And we are making the decision through Joe Biden. Joe Biden has made the decision that he will hamper our own economy and energy production. Why? Because he is appeasing radical environmentalist activists in his party. This appeasement strategy isn't working. It is not working on the world stage. When you appease Iran and criticize Israel, it should be the other way around. It is not working when you appease radical activists on all these issues and you deny the basic facts of what's good for the American people. It's time for change. And we're going to continue to call it out. We're going to continue to pursue legislation. We're going to continue to pursue the support of our small businesses. As Chairman Williams said, the lifeblood of the U.S. economy is also small business. Seventy-five percent of and they are being crushed by regulations from these out-of-control agencies. We're going to be working on every one of these things through the House Republican Majority, showing the American people what we're for and drawing a contrast so they can see clearly what our side is for, what the Republican Party stands for, and what the other side does. With that, I'll take a few questions. First, I've heard of it. Look, I have to do my job. We have to do what we believe to be the right thing. What the country needs right now is a functioning Congress. They need a Congress that works well, works together, and does not hamper its own ability to solve these problems. And so we saw what happened with the motion to vacate the last time. Congress was closed for three weeks. No one can afford for that to happen. And so we need people who are serious about the job here to continue to do that job and get it done. So, you know, I have to do what I believe is right every day and let the jets fall where they may. Y'all heard me say that many times and we'll continue. Did you have any conversations with Leader Jeff Breen, who was a direct emissary before the National Security Supplemental came to the floor, about a possible democratic support if a motion to vacate came up? No, no. I have—was laser-focused on getting the supplemental done. Now, I've had colleagues from both parties come up to me on the floor, of course, and say, we won't stand for this. We're not going to shut the government down and all that—shut the House down. And, of course, you know, I've acknowledged that. But I've not requested assistance from anyone. I've not—I'm not focused on that at all. I'm focused on getting the job done and getting the legislation passed, and that's what— No, there's no deals at all. No, not at all. Would you be comfortable serving as convening service speaker by having the support of Democrats and the Republican people? Listen, I am—the Speaker of the House serves the whole body. I am a conservative Republican, a lifelong conservative Republican. That's what my philosophy is. That's what my record is. And we'll continue to govern on those principles. I mean, you know, you hope you have the support of everyone, the entire country. But, you know, like I said, I've got to do my job and continue to keep my head down. This is a very serious time for the country. We're not playing games here. The world is on fire because of all the things that we've talked about today. We shouldn't be playing politics and, you know, engaging in the chaos that looks like you know, palace intrigue here. We need to be doing the job that the framers intended for Congress to play, and that's what I'm about. I'll continue to pursue that every day and, and, you know, we'll keep the wheels of government functioning. Scott, yeah. When you talk about as a constitutional lawmaker, when you talk about how you think about some of these things, what is permissible for these pro-Palestinian It's a great question. I mean, I used to litigate the contours of the finer points of that. Look, you respect the free exchange of ideas. The university is intended to be the free marketplace of ideas. It's where you should have vigorous debate, thoughtful debate, consideration of weighty issues, and often you'll have very different opinions, vigorous disagreement. That's all great. That's what the First Amendment protects. This is not that. What these students are doing is shutting down the campuses, you know, taking control of buildings. They are threatening their students' lives. They are chanting death to America. At some point, you cross the line and they have. This is not protected free speech. What this is doing is violating the rights of others. Jewish students who are merely on campus trying to get an education, who are playing by the rules, they can't, they're impeded from going to class. They're impeded. They're told not to come onto the university campus where they are paying tuition and they have valid ID cards to be. When you cross that Rubicon and you begin to threaten the lives and intimidate and harass people to the point where they cannot engage in their freedom, then that is unlawful. There is time, place, and manner restrictions that the law has long respected to where there are places and times for free speech events. This is not even close. This is not a close call. And for these university administrators to acknowledge that, I mean, Elise Stefanik has done heroic work in the House Education and Workforce Committee hearings, and those clips have gone viral because she asked university administrators at some of the elite universities, some of the top universities in America, if they could simply say that the calling for the genocide or the elimination of their fellow classmates crosses the line or not, then they couldn't say it. They equivocate each time. It's shocking to the American people. It's shocking to us. And we've got to reestablish where the lines are here. This is out of control. And I think everybody in America, every person of good conscience understands that. When we were on campus at Columbia, we saw flyers, the Jewish students handed flyers that they had taken off of poles and trees and stuff on campus that is literal imagery of the Nazis in the 1930s. One of the flyers had an image of a skunk with a Star of David on it, you know, eliminate these people. I mean, and it's stamped on the bottom, Columbia University. This is out of control. We've got to protect the innocent students there. And we've got to say clearly, without any equivocation, that anti-Semitism is wrong, and we need to stamp it out. And I think that's incumbent upon every leader in this country to do it. And it's shocking to me the President of the United States will not take that step. One last question. Well, look, I'll just say this. There's lots of ideas out there. What we stand for, our party stands for is support of families. We support infants and children, and there's an appropriate role to play in that. The devil's always in the details on legislation, so I'm not sure exactly what they're proposing. But all of us are looking at those avenues. We want to support families. That's good public policy in every way that the government can. And in our view, the best way often for the government to do that is to step back and allow local and state officials to handle their business at that local level. We want to encourage flourishing families, and tax policy is one way to do that. You don't want to penalize marriage, which is what some of our backwards tax policy has done over the years. You want to allow families to flourish because that's the bedrock of society. So you'll continue to see us pursue that as a top priority. Do you want to address that? Sure. I'll add to this. We're proud to be a pro-family conference as House Republicans. There have been many of our members who have proposed very innovative solutions. One is rural child care, home-based child care. That's an issue that I've worked with many of my colleagues on the Education and Workforce Committee. But the economy, the border, crime, these issues, these crises caused by Joe Biden, they impact every family. And particularly when it comes to economic issues, in a district like mine where the median income is about $50,000 for a family, you're seeing increases in diaper costs. You're seeing increases in formula, the lack of access to baby formula. And we have highlighted that as House Republicans, and we're going to continue to highlight these economic crises impacting young families. Thank you.