Republicans seem like uniting round Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) to turn out to be the subsequent Home speaker after weeks of bitter infighting and chaos excessive place.
Johnson, 51, is a reasonably obscure four-term congressman from Louisiana who appears to not elicit the identical private grievances that tanked the prior speaker bids of Reps. (R-La.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and (R-Minn.).
Johnson is well-liked inside the convention, very conservative, and, in a vital take a look at for the MAGA crowd, he supported a authorized technique to throw out the 2020 election based mostly on no proof of widespread fraud.
Johnson, a former lawyer, led an amicus transient signed by over 100 Republican members of Congress backing a flawed Texas lawsuit that requested the Supreme Court docket to overturn the 2020 election. He additionally performed a key function in crafting the rationale that lots of his GOP colleagues utilized in justifying their votes to throw out the 2020 election outcomes ― even simply hours after the Jan. 6, 2021, revolt.
“In formal statements justifying their votes, about three-quarters relied on the arguments of a low-profile Louisiana congressman, Consultant Mike Johnson, crucial architect of the Electoral Faculty objections,” according to The New York Occasions.
When ABC Information reporter Rachel Scott tried to ask Johnson about his help for overturning the 2020 election on Tuesday after the GOP voted to appoint him for speaker, his colleagues booed and shut her down. “Shut up,” yelled Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.).
“We’re not doing any coverage tonight,” Johnson stated, dodging the query.
There’s a motive why Home Republicans are delicate concerning the challenge of the 2020 election: It precipitated issues for speaker nominees, notably Emmer.
Emmer broke along with his get together when he voted to certify the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021 ― although he, too, backed the Texas lawsuit in search of to throw out the election outcomes. Donald Trump and his allies considered Emmer as a squish, and the previous president ended his short-lived speaker bid on Tuesday when he called him “completely out-of-touch with Republican Voters” and claimed he “by no means revered” his endorsements “or the breadth and scope of MAGA.”
Home Republicans are set to vote on Johnson’s speaker bid on Wednesday ― and this time with Trump’s early and vocal help.
“My robust SUGGESTION is to go together with the main candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST! LOVE, DJT,” the 2024 GOP candidate wrote on his social media web site Fact Social.
