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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Friday recounted a meeting with President Biden from early last year, when the president appeared to forget that he had signed an executive order suspending the export of liquefied natural gas ( LNG).
Johnson first publicly recalled the story to Bari Weiss during an episode of her “Honestly” podcast for The Free Press after saying that through her “personal observation” in dealing with Biden, the president “has not been in charge for some time.” “Johnson’s story was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in June, although the newspaper’s reports were based on anonymous sources at the time.
When Weiss asked Johnson To further his observations, the speaker began his account of how Biden’s staff continued to ignore his attempts to schedule a meeting with the president in January 2024 amid “major national concerns” that Johnson said were “taking away his dream”.
Johnson said Biden’s staff finally relented after some media pressure 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-Louisiana, speaks to reporters at the Capitol in Washington on Jan. 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. “There’s also Kamala Harris, Chuck Schumer, Hakeem, you know, the director of the CIA.”
Johnson said the group began “hyping” him about funding Ukraine. when Biden asked if he could have the room with him, a request that Johnson said left the president’s staff visibly concerned.
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 this on behalf of my constituents in Louisiana,” Johnson recalled telling Biden. “Sir, why did you suspend LNG exports to Europe? Our allies have a huge demand for liquefied natural gas. Why would you do that? Because you understand that we just talked about Ukraine, you understand that you are fueling Vladimir’s war machine Putin, because I have to get fuel from him.”
President Joe Biden attends the farewell ceremony for the Commander in Chief of the Department of Defense 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 in 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 just a few weeks ago, Biden denied that what he had signed was a pause on LNG.
Johnson said he argued that the pause would cause “enormous harm to our economy and national security,” and even suggested that the president’s secretary print out a copy of the order so the two could read it together.
“I didn’t really know what I had signed,” Johnson said. “And I left that meeting with fear and hatred because I thought, ‘We’re in serious trouble: Who’s running the country?’ “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 in.
He in export would choke US GDP by $122.5 to $215.7 billion in 2044, while $26.9 to $47.7 billion in tax and royalty revenue for federal, state and local governments would be at risk in 2044 if the pause persists. in permits, according to the study.
However, President-elect Trump reportedly “plans to go strongly 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.
