Speaker Johnson said he’d swear in new House Democrat ‘as soon as she wants.’ Now Republicans are back tracking

Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, speaks to members of the press at the US Capitol on September 30. Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File

Speaker Mike Johnson is not planning to allow Democrats’ newest congresswoman-elect to be sworn-in until her party agrees to end the government shutdown, despite telling CNN earlier Tuesday that he would swear her in “as soon as she wants.”

“We will swear in Rep.-Elect [Adelita] Grijalva as soon as the House returns to session when Chuck Schumer, Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego decide to open up the government,” a leadership aide said Tuesday.

The move amounts to an extraordinary power play to deny a sitting member a seat.

While the leadership aide contended “it’s a customary practice in the House to swear in members w