House Speaker Mike Johnson brushed aside criticism from Democrats that he is holding off the swearing in of a new Democratic House member out of spite, noting that he’s only following past precedent set by then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

He also pushed back on Democratic allegations that his alleged “refusal” to swear in the new member is somehow tied to the “Epstein files.”

“Mr. Speaker, you mentioned the House Oversight, and that work is continuing. And I’ve heard you mention that before,” Fox Business host Cheryl Casone began.

“Your critics are really coming after you, and a lot of reporters keep asking you about this — you know, the move to not swear in Adelita Grijalva from Arizona, the representative-elect from there, and they’re saying it’s because of the Epstein files. I mean, I know you responded to that, but if we do come back, would you be willing to swear her in if we are still in a shutdown?” she asked.

“Of course. We’re going to give her the oath as soon as we return to legislative session. That is the rules of the House. I am following the Pelosi precedent,” Johnson began. “I mean, she did this over and over.

“My good friend Julia Letlow, who was elected to fill the seat of her late husband who passed away because of COVID, tragically, in 2021, she won that special election in very similar circumstances to Rep-Elect Grijalva, who’s taken her father’s seat, but Nancy Pelosi administered the oath to her 25 days after she won that seat. When a couple of Democrats won special elections under Nancy Pelosi’s speakership, Pat Ryan and Joe Sempolinski, she waited 21 days to administer the oath. Why? Because they won during the August recess of Congress, so she waited, logically, till the next legislative days to do that,” Johnson continued.

“I am doing the exact same thing. This has zero to do with Epstein. The Epstein files are being released. There’s 43,000 pages now out there, you have the flight logs, the financial ledgers, the phone logs and the daily calendar of Epstein now that are out there, names are being released, all that is happening. So that’s a red herring,” Johnson clarified.

“The Democrats are so good at distraction, they’re trying to make people lose sight of the simple fact here that the Republicans have voted over and over and over to open the government, and they have voted to close it. That is the plain and simple truth,” he said.

Over the weekend, Johnson revealed that House Republicans can be back in session in 48 hours if Democrats will stop playing games, pass the clean GOP House-passed short-term funding bill, and then work together on the larger bill before the year is over.

Elsewhere during the interview, Johnson spoke about Senate Democrats voting on Monday to block a Republican-sponsored stopgap funding package for the 11th time as the shutdown enters its fourth week.

Senators approved the House-passed bill by a vote of 50-43, which allocates funding for the government until November 21.

Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Independent Sen. Angus King of Maine were the sole senators who deviated from party lines to support the bill’s advancement.

Senator John Fetterman (D-Pennsylvania) abstained from voting.

“We are in the fourth week of this shutdown and we’ve got unpaid federal workers, families that rely on food programs. What do you say to those people, those Americans, why is the government still closed?” Casone asked.

“It is so frustrating to us, Cheryl, because the contrast so is clear. Remember, it was over a month ago that the House did our job, we passed a clean continuing resolution, totally nonpartisan, 24-page, very simple piece of legislation to just keep the lights on so the Congress could continue to do the work of appropriating the funds for the annual budget, and also for navigating all the rest of the issues we have on the table throughout the end of the year,” Johnson said.