During an appearance on MSNBC early Thursday morning, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) attacked House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) for keeping the House from doing its work, and then was cornered over why he and the Democratic caucus saved his Republican counterpart’s job over a year ago.

After making his point to “Way Too Early” host Ali Vitali that he has no intention of letting Republicans off the hook over Affordable Care Act subsidies that were the centerpiece of the shutdown, the MSNBC host asked about his relationship with Johnson.

According to Jeffries, “It was irresponsible for Mike Johnson to keep House Republicans on a taxpayer-funded vacation for more than seven weeks and to castrate, you know, the House of Representatives as it relates to his majority. At the end of the day, we're a separate and coequal branch of government.”

He added, “The problem with House Republicans is that they continue to function like a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Trump cartel, as opposed to what Democrats will do, which is serve as a check and balance on an out-of-control executive branch.”

That was when Vitali brought up Democrats voting for Johnson as Speaker when he faced a rebellion from some of his own caucus.

Vitali countered with, “I wonder if, given that you regret the way that the caucus acted when his job was in jeopardy?”

“No, I think that every moment calls for the best possible decision,” the Democrat stated after a pause.

“At the time, Joe Biden was the president, Senate Democrats were in the majority,” he offered. “We had a responsibility to continue to move forward, particularly in that instance where we needed to fund our ally, Ukraine. That's in a war defending not just their territorial integrity, but also principles of democracy and freedom and truth.”

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