Hard-right Republicans pressure Johnson to back out of bipartisan spending deal

WASHINGTON — Hard-right House Republicans on Thursday met with Speaker Mike Johnson and pressured him to renege on the spending deal he cut with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., just days ago.

Some conservatives left the meeting proclaiming that they were successful. But Johnson, R-La., told reporters shortly thereafter that he had made no commitments to back out of the deal.

“While those conversations are going on, I’ve made no commitments,” Johnson said. “So if you’ve heard otherwise, it’s just simply not true.”

He then put a cellphone to his ear and didn’t take any more questions.

Members of the far-right Freedom Caucus and their allies are furious over the $1.66 trillion bipartisan spending deal he announced over the weekend that puts Congress on a path to avert a shutdown this month and finish its fiscal 2024 appropriations process. The conservative rabble-rousers used Thursday’s meeting to push the new speaker to reverse course and endorse a new strategy.

Leaving the closed-door meeting, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., insisted that border security “absolutely” needs to be part of the budget negotiations and that Ukraine should receive no additional aid from the U.S.

Johnson “claimed in there he agreed with everything I said. He claimed in there he agreed with other conservatives, everything that we said,” Greene told reporters. “There’s going to be a new deal drawn up, and that’s what we’re in the process of doing.”

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., a Freedom Caucus member who met with Johnson, said he came away with the belief that the speaker wants a new plan.

“My view: Speaker Johnson understands the present deal ... will not work,” Norman said. “He also realizes the real crisis: illegal immigration.”