House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and a group of Republican lawmakers visited the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas on Wednesday to increase pressure on President Joe Biden and Democrats to agree to severe new border policies. During the visit to Eagle Pass, Speaker Johnson led a press conference in which he said that Greg Abbott, Texas’ Republican governor, “has heroically done more to enforce the law” than Biden — even referencing a controversial floating barrier on the Rio Grande that a federal appeals court recently ruled the state must remove:
“Right here in Texas, Governor Abbott has heroically done more to enforce the law than the president has. And how has this administration responded? They have sued the state of Texas to stop their deterrence efforts. They have brought them to court to strike down their ability to put up buoys in the water and razor wire and the rest. It’s absolute insanity.”
