Johnson brushes off conservative pushback, tries to lower expectations [Video]

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) defended the rollout of a four-bill package on Wednesday that has come under fire from the conservative wing of the House GOP, appearing to lower expectations for Republicans given the party’s razor-thin majority.

A trio of foreign aid bills will include military assistance to Ukraine, Israel and allies in the Indo-Pacific with humanitarian aid for Gaza and other global hot spots, while a fourth would add other national security priorities more palatable to hard-line conservatives like a TikTok ban, the seizure of Russian assets and additional sanctions against Iran.

“We’re not going to get 100 percent of what we want right now, because we have the smallest majority in history,” Johnson said in a CNN interview with Jake Tapper on Wednesday. “By definition, we won’t get everything we want.”

“But we got a great product here, at the end much better than the alternative that came in the Senate supplemental,” he continued. …