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When Mike Johnson Realized Biden Was Not in Control of His Own Administration

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  January 20, 2025 8:15 AM

On Friday, with just days left in the White House, The New York Times ran a piece on how those closest to President Biden protected him as age caught up with him—mentally and physically. Much of it has already been covered previously—staffers began walking with him from Marine One so his stiff gait wasn’t as obvious. They’d rearrange meetings to when he was at his best. Teleprompters were used even at small fundraising events at the homes of wealthy donors, and press had to submit questions ahead of time. While many of these issues were highlighted by conservatives early in Biden’s presidency—and in the 2020 campaign—House Speaker Mike Johnson recently revealed in an interview with Bari Weiss the moment he realized that Biden was not actually running the show.

One year ago, Johnson met with Biden in the Oval Office to discuss national security issues but first wanted to ask him about a recent executive order that cut off liquified natural gas to Europe.

“Can I ask you a question? I cannot answer this from my constituents in Louisiana,” Johnson recalled telling Biden. “Sir, why did you pause LNG exports to Europe? Liquefied natural gas is in great demand by our allies. Why would you do that? Cause you understand we just talked about Ukraine, you understand you are fueling Vladimir Putin’s war machine, because they gotta get their gas from him.”

Biden, according to Johnson, was stunned. “I didn’t do that,” Biden said. Johnson responded, “Mr. President, yes you did. It was an executive order like three weeks ago.” Biden continued to deny that he paused the LNG exports. At that point, Johnson suggested that the president ask the president’s secretary to print out the executive order, so the two could read it together.

Biden then recalled that he had signed an executive order, but it only called for a study on the effects of LNG. Johnson was firm. “Sir, you paused it, I know. I have the export terminals in my state. I talked to those people in my state, I’ve talked to those people this morning, this is doing massive damage to our economy, national security.”

In this exchange, Johnson said he realized that Biden was not lying to him. “He genuinely did not know what he had signed,” Johnson said. “And I walked out of that meeting with fear and loathing because I thought, “We are in serious trouble—who is running the country?” Like, I don't know who put the paper in front of him, but he didn’t know.” (The Free Press)

So, who was running his administration? Later in the interview Johnson said he didn't know the answer to that, but he suspected Biden agreed to have progressives in key roles in exchange for his primary opponents exiting the race.