House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had a pained reaction to the Supreme Court’s ruling on Tuesday upholding birthright citizenship ― and cameras were there to catch the moment.

Johnson was explaining to reporters why he opposed the longstanding interpretation of the 14th Amendment when one of the journalists informed him of the high court’s decision.

Spoiler alert: He was not happy.

“Oh dear, what’d they rule?” he asked before rolling his eyes and letting out a groan that seemed to emanate deep from the recesses of his body.

Johnson tried to give a workable sound bite despite, as we noted above, not being happy at all.

“Well, uh, I need to read the opinion, OK?” he said. “But uh, obviously that’s, I mean, you could say that’s a textualist and originalist view,” a reference to the judicial philosophy that interprets the Constitution based on what the original framers supposedly intended.

Although the Supreme Court had ruled in the past that individuals born in the U.S. are guaranteed citizenship by the Constitution, Johnson predicted last week that the majority-conservative court would be “originalists” and “textualists” when looking at the arguments.

Johnson continued to insist that birthright citizenship has been “grossly abused in recent years,” and claimed that “it’s a serious problem.”

The House speaker ultimately said the logical response to the ruling is to amend the Constitution to prohibit birthright citizenship, but noted that would be extremely difficult, considering it would require a two-thirds majority in both the House and the Senate, and be ratified by 75% of the states.

“I will say, I’m very disappointed in that outcome,” Johnson added.

You can see Johnson grimace in the CSPAN clip below.

.@SpeakerJohnson on U.S. Supreme Court decision on birthright citizenship: "I need to read the opinion. You could say that's a textualist, originalist view. This has been grossly abused in recent years...I'm very disappointed in that outcome." pic.twitter.com/WSYSiQil5m

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