Republicans made a guy who dresses like Paul Ryan but acts like Sidney Powell their Speaker. Perhaps this will delight deep red MAGA types, but more mainstream voters may be turned off by a political leader who says, “Go pick up a Bible” when asked about his worldview.
After more than three weeks of abject chaos, Republicans finally united behind relative newcomer Mike Johnson. It was like so many things done in this Trumpified Republican Party—sloppy and strange and without much forethought. Republicans seemed to forget the actual demands and challenges of the Speakership by handing it to someone considered the “least experienced” for the job in 140 years. Instead of picking a veteran House member who knew everyone in the caucus and was able to appeal to their particular political needs when it comes to whipping votes, Republicans landed on someone who was so unknown that few disliked him.
Picking Johnson seemed almost as if it was a reaction to all the seething resentment which made it impossible for Jim Jordan to get 217 votes. Johnson had never even met Mitch McConnell, presumably because the Senate minority leader doesn’t have time to meet random backbenchers from Louisiana. Susan Collins said she was going to google him. After all, why would a senator from Maine have any idea who Johnson is, as he’s only been in the house since 2017. But Republicans had boxed themselves in after dumping Kevin McCarthy, rejecting popular GOP majority leader Steve Scalise, saying no to the famous-on-Fox News and slightly frothing Jim Jordan, and passing on the more mainstream majority whip Tom Emmer.
The Speakership dilemma was made considerably more complicated when Donald Trump got involved. The de facto leader of the Republican Party wasn’t able to carry Jordan to 217, but he was able to sink Emmer, the number three Minnesota Republican. Trump surely did it because Emmer voted against overturning the 2020 election, and therefore, was deemed insufficiently loyal. After labeling Emmer a “RINO” on Truth Social, and conferring with House members, Trump reportedly bragged privately, “He’s done. It’s over. I killed him.”
Johnson, however, not only voted against certifying the 2020 election, but also helped lead efforts to overturn Joe Biden’s victory. Johnson, a constitutional lawyer, rallied other Republicans around an amicus brief that was tied to a Texas lawsuit attempting to dismiss the results in several battleground states. He echoed the same demented fantasy pushed by Powell, the former Trump lawyer, which involved “rigged” Dominion voting machines and long-deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez. Nearly three years later and Powell is pleading guilty in a Georgia election-subversion case and Johnson is second in line of succession to the presidency.
Fundraising is a big part of the Speakership job, so of course Republicans picked someone who has shown almost no proficiency in fundraising. He hasn’t needed to since he occupies a very safe Republican seat. Whereas The New York Times noted that McCarthy, Johnson’s predecessor, “has been directly responsible for 10 to 25 percent of all the campaign money raised this year by almost all of the House’s most vulnerable Republicans, according to an analysis of federal records.” That said, the appointment of Johnson led to a fundraising bump and the new Speaker met with donors this past weekend at the Republican Jewish Coalition summit in Las Vegas. (Meanwhile, much of the money Trump is raising is going to his legal defense as he contends with four criminal indictments and ongoing civil litigation.)
Then there’s the House Republicans’ other math problem: They’re clinging to a four-seat majority, with one of those members—the not-so-talented Mr. George Santos—in dire legal straits, with 10 more criminal charges recently added on to the 13 he already faced. The GOP also has to figure out a way to square Republican candidates in 18 congressional districts that were won by Biden now supporting a far-right Speaker.
But perhaps “MAGA Mike” Johnson’s biggest problem will end up being his enormous catalog of comments showcasing his wildly out-of-the-mainstream, religious views. Johnson isn’t as cartoonishly Trumpy as Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene, or Lauren Boebert, so his extreme views on social issues had fallen largely under the radar until now. “Many women use abortion as a form of birth control, you know, in certain segments of society, and it’s just shocking and sad,” he once told New York’s Irin Carmon, adding that “when you break up the nuclear family, when you tell a generation of people that life has no value, no meaning, that it’s expendable, then you do wind up with school shooters.”
No abortions don’t create school shooters, that’s not how any of this works.
Johnson is also staunchly anti-LGBTQ+ rights. He called being gay a “dangerous lifestyle” and “inherently unnatural” and said of gay sex, “States have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same-sex deviate sexual intercourse.” Johnson was also bothered by Emmer for voting in favor of the legalization of same-sex marriage, saying of Emmer’s vote, “You know how I voted on it. Everybody votes their conscience but I’ve always been very resolute on that issue.”
As Johnson’s extremist views surface, the clock is ticking toward another shutdown, with the government only funded until November 17, along with other pressing matters. According to Punchbowl, “House Republicans are planning to try to offset the $14 billion for Israel with spending cuts elsewhere. The White House has sought this as emergency funding, and it’s unheard of for Congress to seek such cuts.”
The fantasy that Johnson will somehow find pay-fors to offset emergency aid seems like some Ayn Rand fan fiction. But we’ll see. Did I mention Johnson still hasn’t changed the one-person motion to vacate? His Speakership could be even shorter than McCarthy’s.
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