Adelita Grijalva Obliterates Mike Johnson's Excuses For Not Swearing Her In

Rep. Elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) spoke at a press conference today where she took apart Speaker Mike Johnson's excuses for not swearing her in and allowing her to take her seat in the House.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has been getting asked daily why he has not sworn in Adelita Grijalva so that she can take her seat in the House. Johnson has used numerous excuses, including that the House isn’t in session, Grijalva doesn’t have a date scheduled for her swearing in, and that Democrats should allow her to be sworn in by voting for his healthcare-killing CR in the Senate.

The Daily is outside the Beltway journalism focused on democracy and freedom. Please support us by becoming a subscriber.

Lately, Johnson’s new excuse for the last couple of days has been that Grijalva can and should be doing constituent work without taking office.

Rep. Jamie Raskin tried to force the House majority to swear in the Rep. Elect during a pro forma session, but the chair ignored him and wouldn’t acknowledge him. The chair quickly fled the House floor.

Rep. Elect Grijalva knocked down Johnson’s excuses today by saying:

I  think this is the fifth time that a member of Congress has tried to get some recognition in order to have me sworn in. Today is day 28 since my election, and I think that it’s really important that we appreciate that 812,000 Arizonans do not have representation in Congress.

My dad passed away a little over seven months ago in March, and since that time, the offices were able to provide constituent services. It was the People’s Office of Arizona CD-7. On September 23rd, those services ended, and so I do not have access to provide services in the district.

I also don’t have a budget, so this back and forth coming back and forth is on my miles that I had stored up because I don’t have a budget. I’m not able to open a lease in district. And I think that, you know, the efforts that have been provided to me, and I’m appreciative of the administration’s effort, the departments, and the administration, they’re trying to provide piecemeal solutions to some of the problems that we have, but respectfully, there’s so much that cannot be done until I am sworn in.