Grijalva vows legislation to stop ‘unconscionable’ Republican delay on swearing-in

WASHINGTON (CN) — Freshly minted Arizona Representative Adelita Grijalva on Wednesday demanded Congress pass legislation blocking House leadership from delaying new members from getting sworn into office.

And the Democratic congresswoman, finally sworn in this week nearly two months after she was elected to represent the Grand Canyon State’s 7th Congressional District, slammed House Speaker Mike Johnson who she said purposefully obstructed her inauguration and disenfranchised her constituents.

Grijalva, daughter of the late Representative Raul Grijalva, was elected in September to fill her father’s congressional seat after his death. But Johnson for weeks declined to formally swear into her office. The House speaker blamed the shutdown for the delay, despite the fact that it would have been possible to swear in the new congresswoman during the appropriations lapse.

All told, Grijalva waited roughly 50 days to be formally inaugurated into Congress — the longest delay of such a process in modern history.

Following her swearing-in ceremony Wednesday, the Arizona Democrat levied sharp criticism against Johnson and Republicans for boxing her out of her congressional seat.

“Let’s understand very clearly that if I were a Republican, I would not have waited this long,” she told reporters during a news conference held by the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. “If I were a man, I would not have waited this long. We all know that the rules are always different for women of color and people of color and we have to fight against that.”

Grijalva became emotional as she described the delay, explaining that representing Arizona’s 7th District was particularly important to her as the daughter of the late congressman Grijalva. She added that the House speaker had added insult to injury by making “misogynistic comments about what I should and should not be doing.”

During the monthlong hang time between her election and swearing in, Grijalva came to Washington, though she could not access her congressional office or do any other work for constituents. In spite of that, Johnson said on CNN in October that the congresswoman-elect should be “working or in the district for her constituents.”

Speaking to reporters Thursday, Grijalva vowed that no other new member of Congress should experience the same delay.

“There is no way that this can ever happen again to anyone, at all,” she said. “We’re going to push forward bipartisan legislation to ensure it because we cannot allow this to happen to anyone again. For one individual to be able to silence 800,000 people — it’s unconscionable.”

New York Representative Adriano Espaillat, chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, said the House speaker broke the law by slow-walking Grijalva’s swearing in.

“Two months of delay was not just unprecedented, it was unacceptable,” he said. “I think it was illegal. The Constitution guarantees representation, and all of us in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, including now Adelita Grijalva, will defend that.”

Johnson, for his part, sidestepped questions about his delay Thursday. Pressed by reporters during a photo op with Grijalva following her swearing-in ceremony, the House speaker said he was looking forward to working with the new congresswoman.

“I really like this lady, and she’s going to make an excellent member of Congress,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Grijalva on Thursday became the 218th House lawmaker to sign a discharge petition that will now force a vote on legislation aimed at releasing the so-called Epstein files — a trove of documents related to the government’s investigation into the late financier and convicted sex trafficker. Democrats had long speculated Johnson was delaying Grijalva’s inauguration to halt the release of Epstein documents, which they argue implicate President Donald Trump.

“With my signing, we move one step closer to the truth,” said Grijalva.

Trump, though he has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, reportedly spent the day calling Republican signatories to the discharge petition in an effort to get them to recant, and even invited Colorado Representative Lauren Boebert to the White House for such a conversation.

No Republicans removed their names from the petition.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee on Thursday morning published a series of never-before-seen emails from Epstein, in which the convicted pedophile said Trump “knew” about his trafficking of underage girls and referred to him as “that dog that hasn’t barked.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters during a news briefing that the emails “prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”

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