Republican House Hands the Gavel to a Key Coup Plotter
….who still also wants a nationwide abortion ban and is opposed to same-sex marriage
After three weeks of chaotic flailing about to find a Speaker of the House, the GOP members settled on Louisiana’s Mike Johnson. He has just 6 years of experience in the House, has never chaired a committee – but he was one of the key strategists of the sedition caucus, which tried to cancel the results of the 2020 election.
After his nomination to the position, Liz Cheney sent a link to a year-old New York Times article that characterized Johnson as “…a low-profile Louisiana congressman…[who was] the most important architect of the Electoral College objections.” Like his predecessor (failed) nominees Scalise and Jordan, Johnson was among the 149 Congressional Republicans who voted against certifying the electoral votes of at least one state.
It’s what got him the gavel.
The nominee who immediately preceded him, MN Representative Tom Emmer, a much more experienced and seasoned hand, failed in his bid. Because he had not objected to certifying the electoral votes. The MAGA boss knocked him off, despite some apparent groveling by Emmer.
So now we have a Speaker who took an oath to uphold the Constitution – and then broke it to try to keep Trump in power. Who may be in position to enable similar shenanigans ion 2024. And whose more recent legislative record show skepticism about aiding Ukraine. The Boston Globe’s Teresa Hanafin’s take on him:
I hope Americans realize how today's simple vote to install Mike Johnson of Louisiana as the new speaker of the House has put our democracy in grave danger.
House Republicans did Trump's bidding and chose as their next speaker a guy who is a big-time election denier and was the chief architect of one of the false arguments at the heart of Trump's coup attempt in Congress in 2020.
So if Trump loses to Joe Biden again in November of 2024, and Johnson is still the House speaker, then Trump very well could succeed in overthrowing the duly-elected government of the United States. Johnson…[is] a true-blue MAGA minion, passing the only litmus test they care about: He's a Trump boot-licker of the highest order.
Being a diehard Trumper isn't the only thing you should know about him: He's adamantly opposed to same-sex marriage. He wants a nationwide ban on abortion with no exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother, and he wants women who get abortions and doctors who perform them punished.
He voted against a bill to establish an independent Jan. 6 commission, the infrastructure law, reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, a modest gun control law, and the CHIPS and Science Act. He also had no problem with a government shutdown; he voted against the stopgap bill to avert it on Oct. 1.
He won the Speakership without a single Republican dissenter. Confirming there is NOT ONE OF THEM with a backbone, conscience, or guts. I don’t know how they look in the mirror each day.
Once again my mantra is reinforced.
I won’t ever vote “R” for ANY OFFICE, even dog-catcher. Until they grow some spine.[1]
[1] Back in, I think, 2018, I was buttonholed on my way to the polls in Pikesville, MD by an earnest young Republican candidate for the statehouse. He handed me his literature and asked for my support. I asked him how he felt about Donald Trump and the antics of the Republican Congress. He hemmed and hawed and evaded. I told him as long as he identified himself with that same party, there was no way I would even give him a listen.