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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Friday recounted a meeting with President Biden early last year when the president appeared to forget that he signed an executive order halting the export of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Johnson first publicly recalled the story to Bari Weiss during an episode of his “Honestly” podcast for The Free Press after he said that through his “personal observation” in dealing with Biden, the president “has long which is not in charge.” .” The story was first reported by Johnson Wall Street Journal in June, although the newspaper’s reports were based on anonymous sources at the time.
When Weiss asked Johnson To expand on his remarks, the speaker began his story about how Biden’s staff continued to ignore his attempts to schedule a meeting with the president in January 2024 amid “great national concerns” that Johnson said ” I was losing sleep.”
Johnson said Biden’s staff eventually relented after some pressure from the media and invited him to the Oval Office to meet with the president. Johnson, however, said the meeting did not start as expected.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., speaks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington on January 7, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
“I show up and realize it’s actually an ambush because it’s not just me and the president,” Johnson said. “It’s also Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem, you know, the director of the CIA.”
Johnson said the group began to “box him in” on the Ukraine funding when Biden asked if he could have the room with him, a request that Johnson said left the president’s staff visibly worried.
Once Biden and Johnson were alone in the Oval Office, the speaker asked the president about his pause on LNG exports.
“I can’t answer that for my constituents in Louisiana,” Johnson recalled telling Biden. “Sir, why did you stop LNG exports to Europe? Liquefied natural gas is in high demand by our allies. Why would you do that? Because you understand that we just talked about Ukraine, you understand that you are fueling the war machine of Vladimir Putin, because they have to take their gas from him.”
President Joe Biden attends the Department of Defense Commander in Chief Farewell Ceremony at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall on January 16, 2025 in Arlington, Virginia. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)
Johnson recounted how a stunned Biden responded, “I didn’t do that.”
Biden initiated a pause on new LNG export permits through January 2024, a move that has been widely criticized by the oil community and bipartisan lawmakers in the House.
Johnson said that when he reminded the president of the executive order he had signed a few weeks ago, Biden denied that what he had signed was a pause in LNG.
Johnson said he argued that the pause would do “massive damage to our economy, to our national security,” and even suggested that the president’s secretary print a copy of the order so the two could read it together.
“He really didn’t know what he had signed,” Johnson said. “And I left that meeting in fear and hatred because I thought, ‘We’re in serious trouble, who’s running the country?’ Like, I don’t know who put the paper in front of him, but he didn’t know.”
Biden’s LNG pause threatens nearly 1 million jobs over the next two decades if the restriction remains in place, according to a study by the National Association of Manufacturers, which Fox News Digital previously reported activated
The in export The study found it would choke US GDP by $122.5 billion to $215.7 billion in 2044, while $26.9 billion to $47.7 billion in tax and royalty revenue to federal, state and local governments would be at risk by 2044 if it persists the leave break.
President-elect Trump, however, reportedly “Plans to go strong on the issue” of LNG exports when he takes office, sources told Reuters in November.
Fox News Digital’s Aubrie Spady and Eric Revell contributed to this report.
