U.S. Democratic Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva believes House Speaker Mike Johnson refuses to swear her in because she has pledged to sign a discharge petition to release the so-called Epstein files.
Grijalva won a special election in Arizona's 7th congressional district two weeks ago, replacing her late father Raul Grijalva. However, despite being in Washington, D.C. last week before the government shutdown, Grijalva told Scripps News on Wednesday she hasn't heard anything from Speaker Johnson regarding her swearing in.
"Not at all, not one thing," she said. "We have reached out directly. We sent a letter. We're like, just give us a date, because this idea that the government is shutdown so we can't do it is completely false."
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Grijalva noted that during government shutdowns, the U.S. House can have pro forma sessions, which are brief meetings held between lawmakers to fulfill constitutional or procedural requirements while not conducting legislative business.
"We had one today," Grijalva said. "Rep. Greg Stanton from Arizona, you could hear him audibly saying excuse me, to be recognized so he can ask for a date for me to get sworn in, and that didn't happen. And so if [Speaker Johnson] says we're going to have a pro forma session on Friday, be here. I would be there because it is that important to the constituents of this community to have a voice there and for me to be able to hire staff, open up offices. Let me do my job."
Speaker Johnson told Scripps News last week that Grijalva would be sworn in once the House returns to regular session — which was thought to be this week. Ultimately, however, Johnson announced the House would stay home this week and return to session as soon as next week.
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It appears Johnson's hope is that the Senate will deal with the government shutdown before House lawmakers return. Until then, he's seemingly putting off the swearing-in of Grijalva until a government funding bill has passed.
Meanwhile, Arizona Senators Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego both got into a heated spat with Johnson on Wednesday for keeping the House out of session and refusing to swear in Grijalva.
After that confrontation, Kelly told Scripps News that part of the reason he's frustrated is because he thinks the matter is tied directly to Grijalva's commitment to sign the discharge petition that would force a vote in the House to release the so-called Epstein files. Grijalva was also elected to represent Kelly's district in Arizona.
"[Johnson] is doing this because he understands she's the 218th vote on the discharge petition for the Epstein case," Kelly said. "I think it's probably that. I mean it also reduces his numbers and maybe he thinks he gets some kind of leverage with this."
"I live in that district, by the way," he added. "As well as like 700,000 other people live in that district that have no representation. That's not right. And we don't even have a date. I mean, [Grijalva] could get up here tomorrow."
