Johnson Demands Shutdown End Before Debate With Jeffries

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., retracted his earlier expressed willingness to participate in a televised debate with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, on C-SPAN’s “Ceasefire” program, now making the engagement conditional on the federal government being reopened.

Johnson had previously told C-SPAN that he “would love” to debate Jeffries, prompting the network to promote the potential face-off. But on Fox News’s America Reports, Johnson clarified that the debate commitment was not firm.

“I’ll debate Hakeem Jeffries anywhere, anytime, as soon as we get the government open,” he said, adding that Jeffries was “engaging in political theater and stating absurd things.”