Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego of Arizona said Thursday that he had to physically restrain himself during a tense exchange with House Speaker Mike Johnson, escalating an already bitter standoff over the ongoing government shutdown and the delayed swearing-in of a Democratic lawmaker.
The confrontation follows a week of sharp exchanges between Johnson and Senate Democrats after the Speaker refused to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva of Arizona until the government reopens. Johnson has defended the move as procedural, accusing Democrats of using the standoff for political theater.
In an interview on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper on Wednesday, Johnson dismissed claims that the delay was related to other political controversies, including the fight over the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s files. “No, I didn’t change my terms. You can look at that video. In slow mo, watch Ruben Gallego’s body language. He’s folding his arms. He’s very uncomfortable. He’s not telling you the truth,” Johnson told Tapper. “This doesn’t have anything whatsoever to do with Epstein. They try to make everything about Epstein. This is about the House not being in regular session because the Democrats and the senators decided to shut everything down.”
Gallego fired back hours later in a profanity-laced video posted to X. “He’s such a fucking liar. And what a creep. He’s just telling what I’m thinking. I literally told him what I’m thinking,” the senator said. “He is absolutely holding Adelita Grijalva hostage so that way she can’t be the 218th vote on the discharge petition. That’s it. It’s just that simple.”
The Arizona Democrat, a former Marine, said he had to physically control himself during his exchange with Johnson. “His reasons keep on changing,” Gallego said. “I think he gets away with the press because they don’t actually push him on it, but I did yesterday, and he should be happy I had my arms folded. There’s a reason why Marines fold their arms. It’s because it’s a way to make sure that we restrain ourselves.”
Military manuals and law enforcement de-escalation training do not describe folded arms as a restraint technique.
Experts instead view the posture as defensive or closed-off — a gesture that can signal tension rather than composure.
Johnson’s communications team wasted no time in pushing back. Edgar A. Barrios, a member of the Speaker’s rapid response team, wrote on X that rather than focusing on reopening the government, Gallego chose to “stage a failed publicity stunt,” “record a second-rate video,” and “seemingly threaten the Speaker.”
The altercation reportedly took place outside Johnson’s office on Wednesday, when Gallego and his fellow Arizona Democrat, Sen. Mark Kelly, confronted the Speaker over stalled health care negotiations and the delay in swearing in Grijalva.
Kelly accused Johnson of keeping Republicans on “an extended summer vacation,” while Gallego charged that Johnson was blocking the ceremony to prevent Democrats from forcing a vote on releasing Epstein’s files.
Johnson, however, insisted Democrats were the ones misleading the public. He accused them of using “taxpayer-funded health care for illegal immigrants” as a bargaining chip in the budget impasse. Democrats, he said, were trying to restore “nearly $200 billion in benefits for non-citizens” as part of the negotiations to reopen the government.
“The American people deserve to know the truth,” Johnson said, vowing to counter “left-wing talking points” in upcoming media appearances.
While Democrats have tried to cast the Speaker’s decision as political obstruction, Johnson’s allies argue that his hardline approach reflects a growing conservative frustration with Democratic spending priorities.
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