The “Morning Joe” panel torched Speaker Mike Johnson’s excuses for why he’s yet to swear in Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva in the midst of the government shutdown.
“His arguments literally become more stupid by the day. I didn’t think it was possible, but on this point they become more stupid by the day,” co-host Joe Scarborough said during the group’s Tuesday segment.
“Swear her in like everybody else in your position would do, and then she can go into the offices, then she can help who will then be her constituents,” Scarborough continued before stating his belief that Johnson is blocking Grijalva from the position in an effort to delay the release of supposed documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein.
“They are not her constituents now, because you keep refusing to swear her in because you’re afraid of what happens when the Epstein files are all released,” Scarborough said.
Mika Brzezinski jumped in to agree with her co-panelist.
“That is what some people believe, yes,” Brzezinski said. “The more stupid the explanations get, the more that looks exactly like what’s going on.”
The panel’s remarks come after Johnson defended his month-long decision to hold back on swearing Grijalva in, saying on Monday during a news conference that he is simply “following the Pelosi precedent.” Grijalva won her special election on Oct. 23.
“Rep. Grijalva won her race in the I think it was the last week of September after we had already gone out of session, so I will administer the oath to her, hope on the first day we come back [to] legislative session,” Johnson said at the time. “I’m willing and anxious to do that. In the meantime, instead of doing TikTok videos, she should be serving her constituents.”
Scarborough came back in to say that Johnson is treating Democrats differently than he would Republicans.
“He swears in Republicans when the House is not in session, so he’s not swearing in this one Democrat, and then he’s saying she should be helping her constituents,” Scarborough said. “She should be answering calls. No, she can’t. She doesn’t have a congressional office, Mr. Speaker, because you won’t give her one. You are stopping her from helping her constituents get through this government shutdown, and there’s no excuse for it at all.”
Check out the full clip above.
