Mike Johnson dodges question on Trump’s threat to violate Nato treaty

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson evidently isn’t taking any chances when it comes to his relationship with Donald Trump and the right wing of his caucus in the lower chamber.

Mr Johnson spoke to The Independent on Tuesday evening as lawmakers gathered to vote on the impeachment of Joe Biden’s Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas. That effort, seen largely as a handout for hardliners in the House ahead of primary contests this spring, passed by one vote on Tuesday after failing to pass the chamber last week.

During his presser, he was asked by The Independent’s Eric Garcia about his thoughts in response to Donald Trump’s public threat to violate Nato’s article 5, the cornerstone of its mutual defence agreement, if Russia were to attack a member-state which Mr Trump sees as making insufficient defence contributions. The comments sparked a firestorm in Washington and across the world over the weekend as they inherently cast into doubt the future of the Nato defence pact under a hypothetical second Trump presidency.

“Not going to comment on that,” Mr Johnson shot back.

It was a revealing moment. Mr Trump’s comments have, by now, been denounced by many prominent Republicans who continue to embrace their party’s traditionally-hawkish views on national security. The few exceptions among those Republicans have sought to dismiss the former president’s words as bluster rather than a policy prescription.

Mitch McConnell joined those ranks on Tuesday after initially attempting to take the same track as Mr Johnson.

“I totally disagree with him. And it was extremely unhelpful,” he told Punchbowl in an interview.

Others have made similar comments, even some more conservative members typically seen as closer to Mr Trump