- Written by Anthony Zurcher and Nadine Yousif in Washington
- bbc news
image source, Getty Images
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said after speaking with President Donald Trump on Friday that he would push for legislation that would require voters to prove they are U.S. citizens.
It was Mr Johnson’s first public meeting since he took over as chairman in November.
It comes as some members of Mr Johnson’s party call for him to be removed from his leadership post.
But the former president said he believed the speaker was doing a “very good job.”
House Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a motion three weeks ago to remove Johnson from office.
Greene accused the chair of aligning with Democrats on aid to Ukraine.
“I get on very well with the speaker, and I get on very well with Marjorie,” Trump said after the meeting at his Mar-a-Lago, Fla., mansion.
“It’s not an easy situation for any speaker. I think he’s doing a very good job, and I think he’s doing about as good a job as you’re going to do.”
Mr. Trump opened his remarks by attacking President Biden over immigration, but Mr. Johnson linked the issue to the declared topic of the meeting: “election integrity.”
Trump continues to claim that his loss in the 2020 presidential election was due to voter fraud, but he has not presented any evidence to support his claims, and courts and election officials from both parties have rejected them. are doing.
At a news conference Friday, Johnson said he would push for legislation that would require voters to prove they are U.S. citizens and require states to remove non-citizens from their voter rolls.
He claimed that Democrats “want to turn these people into voters,” and suggested, without citing evidence, that immigrants were being encouraged to register to vote by their local welfare offices.
Noncitizens are prohibited from voting in U.S. federal elections, and studies by the conservative Heritage Foundation and other organizations have found that cases of immigrants voting illegally are extremely rare.
Although he stopped short of claiming that illegal voting by immigrants is a major ongoing problem, Johnson said, “Everyone who registers to vote in an election must prove they are a U.S. citizen.” “I intend to introduce legislation that would require this,” he said.
“We cannot wait for widespread fraud to occur,” he said.
The former president’s endorsement comes at a politically difficult time for the speaker, who is facing efforts by Greene to oust him from office.
In a letter to her Republican colleagues on Tuesday, Greene warned that she would not tolerate Johnson “serving the Democratic Party and the Biden administration” more than her own party and “helping implement their policies.”
She has accused him of helping Democrats pass spending bills, but his recent efforts to provide more military aid to Ukraine appear to have sparked her opposition.
On March 22, she filed a motion to remove Johnson, accusing him of “betraying” the Republican Party.
But she has not yet indicated whether or when she intends to force actual action on the motion in the form of a floor vote.
Trump and his campaign will want to avoid another chaotic leadership battle within the House of Representatives before the US presidential election in November. Opinion polls showed that the October fight eroded voters’ confidence in the party.
Trump earlier this week derailed his efforts to update provisions of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but a revised bill passed the House early Friday.
The law allows government agencies to collect foreign information on U.S. soil if a special court agrees. Trump said he “doesn’t support” the bill, but noted that it had been amended to require reauthorization after two years.
He also plans to bring the Ukraine military aid bill to a vote next week, months after existing aid funding expires.
Asked about the issue, Trump said: “We’re looking at it, they’re talking about it, and they’re looking at doing it in the form of a loan rather than a gift.”
He has repeatedly said in the past that if he were still in the White House, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the current conflict in the Middle East would not have occurred.
