House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) has turned off mentions of Instagram on his official government account following the social media uproar over the Ukraine aid passage.
Instagram users will no longer be able to mention the so-called People’s House leader in posts on the popular app, a change that will restrict users from engaging with Mr Johnson’s official account.
The environment is unusual for politicians on Capitol Hill, who typically maximize engagement with the public.
Notably, Johnson, along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), refrained from mentioning himself.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as he arrives to address a joint session of Congress at the House of Representatives in Washington, DC, December 21, 2022. (left). (Anna Moneymaker/Getty)
Breitbart News did not receive a response from Johnson’s press secretary, who asked why the speaker stopped speaking and whether the decision was permanent. Mr Johnson’s first post on his Instagram account appears to be on February 8, 2017, a month after he took office.
Johnson had long opposed additional wartime aid to Ukraine until a monumental reversal after a Feb. 27 meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House. Until then, Johnson, like most Republicans, had insisted the House would not consider foreign aid unless the border crisis was first addressed.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) arrives to speak with members of the media outside the West Wing after meeting with President Joe Biden at the White House on February 27, 2024 in Washington. (Andrew Harnik, File/AP)
Hours after Iran’s missile attack on Israel, Prime Minister Johnson announced plans to use the urgency of helping Israel, one of America’s closest allies, to make more than $60 billion in aid to Ukraine possible. revealed. The package passed the House on Saturday with a majority of Republicans voting against aid to Ukraine.
The procedural vote to allow a vote on the package also passed with more support from Democrats than Republicans, a surprising historic development that essentially allows the minority party to control the House agenda.
The Ukraine bill passed the Senate late Tuesday night and was signed into law by President Biden on Wednesday.
“In the end, we did what America has always done and rose to this point,” Biden said, delivering his first and long-awaited major foreign policy accomplishment to Congress. He praised that.
Bradley Jay is Breitbart News’ Capitol Hill correspondent. Follow him on X/Twitter. @BradleyAJay.
