Harris slams Speaker Mike Johnson for saying the GOP may repeal CHIPS Act

Vice President Kamala Harris tore into Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Saturday for his remark that Republicans may search to repeal the CHIPS and Science Act in the event that they take management of Congress within the upcoming election.

“I additionally wish to converse to the feedback which were just lately made by the speaker of the Home,” Harris informed reporters in Milwaukee. “It’s simply additional proof of all the things that I’ve truly been speaking about for months now, about [former President Donald] Trump’s intention to implement Undertaking 2025.”

“We now have talked repeatedly — and the American individuals know what’s in it — we’ve talked repeatedly about their intention to eliminate the Inexpensive Care Act. Now to eliminate the CHIPS Act,” Harris added.

Her remarks got here a day after Johnson made the controversial remark at an occasion in New York with politically susceptible Rep. Brandon Williams, R-N.Y. When requested whether or not Republicans will search to repeal the CHIPS Act in the event that they win the election, Johnson replied, “I count on that we most likely will,” in response to a video posted by a neighborhood journalist.

Johnson’s assertion led to a clumsy alternate during which Williams stood subsequent to him and disagreed. “The CHIPS Act is vastly impactful right here,” Williams mentioned, vowing to “remind” Johnson “evening and day” in regards to the significance of the regulation.

Johnson replied by praising Williams: “If that’s an essential factor to your district, you want this man there to make that case.”

Not lengthy after, because the clip began to flow into, Johnson walked again his remark, saying in an announcement: “As I’ve additional defined and clarified, I absolutely assist Micron coming to Central NY, and the CHIPS Act shouldn’t be on the agenda for repeal. On the contrary, there may very well be laws to additional streamline and enhance the first objective of the invoice — to remove its pricey laws and Inexperienced New Deal necessities.”

Williams mentioned in an announcement that he spoke to Johnson after the occasion and the speaker “apologized profusely, saying he misheard the query.”

Later at Saturday’s press convention, Harris continued to blast Johnson and Republicans, saying the speaker walked again his remark “as a result of it’s not fashionable, and their agenda shouldn’t be fashionable.”

“And that’s why persons are exhibiting up by the hundreds, tens of hundreds, to speak about an agenda that truly is targeted on lifting them up,” the vp added.

When requested about Johnson’s remarks, his marketing campaign spokesperson criticized the nation’s financial efficiency beneath the Biden administration, together with an October jobs report that got here in a lot decrease than anticipated, partly as a result of harm from the current hurricanes and strikes.

“Nobody has killed extra jobs on this nation and finished extra to crush the American individuals than Kamala Harris,” the spokesperson mentioned in an announcement to NBC Information.

The spokesperson additionally referred to as her feedback in regards to the CHIPS Act a “lie as a result of she’s a failed, radical, say-anything politician who can’t level to a SINGLE factor she’s finished to enhance People’ price of residing and lifestyle.”

Harris was not the primary Democrat to assault Johnson for his remarks.

“Wow — Mike Johnson confirms he and Trump would repeal the CHIPS regulation, which is investing in new vegetation and manufacturing in PA, MI, NC, GA, AZ that’s creating hundreds of jobs,” Harris spokesperson Ian Sams posted on X on Friday.

Senate Majority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., additionally wrote on X, “The Republican Speaker of the Home simply informed the tens of hundreds of building employees constructing New York and America’s future they wish to ship them pink slips ASAP.”

Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly’s spokesperson Jacob Peters additionally slammed Johnson, writing in a put up on X, “He didn’t misunderstand something. His solely mistake was being sincere.”

In a while Saturday, at a union occasion in Pennsylvania, President Joe Biden addressed Johnson’s remark, saying, “Trump and Republicans wish to eliminate the CHIPS and Science Act.

“I labored like hell to get that finished. I wrote that sucker,” he added.

The CHIPS Act handed Congress on a bipartisan foundation and was signed into regulation by Biden in 2022.

It allotted $280 billion in new funding to spice up home analysis and the manufacturing of semiconductors and chips. It additionally allotted funding for different science, expertise and engineering applications.

Based on the Commerce Division, the CHIPS and Science Act has led to $53 billion in spending on semiconductors; $30 billion in personal sector investments, spanning 23 tasks and 15 states; 16 new semiconductor vegetation and about 115,000 new manufacturing and building jobs by finish of 2024.