House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is facing a lawsuit from the state of Arizona for not swearing in its new representative, a move the Speaker called “patently absurd.”
Rep.-elect Adelita Letlow (D-Ariz.) won a special election on Sept. 23 to replace her late father, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who died in March, NBC News.
“Speaker Mike Johnson is actively stripping the people of Arizona of one of their seats in Congress and disenfranchising the voters of Arizona’s seventh Congressional district in the process,” Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, said in a statement, according to Fox News. “By blocking Adelita Grijalva from taking her rightful oath of office, he is subjecting Arizona’s seventh Congressional district to taxation without representation. I will not allow Arizonans to be silenced or treated as second-class citizens in their own democracy.”
Johnson responded, stating this was a way to get “national publicity.”
“I think it’s patently absurd. We run the House. She has no jurisdiction. We’re following the precedent,” Johnson said. “She’s looking for national publicity, apparently she’s gotten some of it, but good luck with that.”
Watch:
Johnson has asserted Grijalva will be sworn in when the House returns to its regular sessions.
However, Johnson has threatened to keep the House members out of Washington, D.C., until the government shutdown is over.
House Democrats believe Johnson is playing politics and depriving Arizona’s 7th Congressional District of representation.
“Republicans on vacation for four weeks — and one of the consequences of that is that Republicans have refused, now for four consecutive weeks, to swear in Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, depriving hundreds of thousands of people in the state of Arizona of the representation that they deserve, particularly during this challenging moment in the country,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday.
Johnson has pointed out that the House was not in session when Grijalva won.
He’s also cited former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) waited 25 days to swear in Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.) in 2021.
“We are not in legislative session. The chronology is important. Rep. Grijalva won her race, 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, I hope, on the first day we come back,” Johnson said.
“I’m willing and anxious to do that. In the meantime, instead of doing TikTok videos, she should be serving her constituents,” he added.
