Johnson then responds, “A lot of folks on your side are too, I don’t control him...” seemingly conceding Dean’s point that the president is unwell but arguing that he isn’t alone.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and Speaker Johnson for comment.
In response, Dean scoffs and says, “Oh my God, please. That performance in front of the generals?” a reference to a rambling address the president gave to senior military leaders earlier that day.
Johnson claimed to have not seen Trump’s speech to military leaders, telling Dean, “I didn’t see it.” Undeterred, Dean continued, saying, “It’s so dangerous! You know I serve on Foreign Affairs and Appropriations, it’s a collision of those two things. Our allies are looking elsewhere. Our enemies are laughing. You have a president who is unwell.”
The president’s address to military leaders was criticized by fact-checkers for containing “a lot of lies,” with CNN outlining several, including the president’s suggestion that his predecessor, President Joe Biden, wanted to terminate the Space Force, and that Biden let 25 million immigrants into the country.
Speculation has also continued to grow regarding the president’s health, with concerns expressed that he may be suffering from dementia in addition to physical issues around a diagnosis of chronic venous insufficiency. The White House has denied that the president has any major health issues.
Other footage of the confrontation published on Tuesday shows Dean imploring Johnson to do his job, telling him, “We need you desperately to lead.”
When asked about his conversation with Dean later that evening by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins, Johnson said, “I’m the Speaker of the House, so I represent Republicans and Democrats in that capacity, and I always hear complaints and concerns from members, and I always stop and hear that. I did that for Madeleine Dean; I respect her as an individual.”
“We disagree on every policy matter, and she was concerned about a social media post of the president, which he meant as a joke, and we talked about that. I told her I disagreed with her perspective on it, but I tried to bring her back to the real issue. The fight tonight is not about social media posts. The fight is about where they‘re going to keep the government open for the American people,” he added.
Dean’s confrontation with Johnson stemmed from the president’s AI-generated video of Schumer and Jeffries, which showed Jeffries with a mustache wearing a sombrero while an AI-dubbed Schumer spoke to reporters as mariachi music played in the background.
Speaking to CNN’s Manu Raju after her confrontation with Johnson, Dean said, “He asked me, like, rhetorically, ‘Is that really racist?’ It’s really racist, it’s despicable, and he should have called it out. And I said, “Did you see what the president did in that performance before the generals?” He said he hadn’t seen it."
In the footage, posted by NOTUS on Tuesday, Johnson can be heard asking, “Is it racist?” with Dean responding, “Is it racist? You put a sombrero on a Black man who’s the leader of the House? You don’t see that as racist?”
