Speaker Mike Johnson has the gavel, but it’s Donald Trump’s House now
WASHINGTON – There may be a new speaker in town, but it’s Donald Trump’s House of Representatives.
Even though former President Trump was in New York City today, House Republicans’ unanimous election of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) shows a dramatic rightward shift for the GOP on Capitol Hill.
You read that correctly.
“Donald Trump has cemented his control over the Republican conference in the House of Representatives. He has a stranglehold on the Republican Party,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) told reporters on the steps of the Capitol. “Even as he faces 91 criminal charges and several of his election lawyers have pleaded guilty now to election-related offenses, one of his enablers on January 6 has just become the speaker of the House Representatives.”
After three chaotic weeks of Republican on Republican brawls, the party united around the man the New York Times last year dubbed “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections” for the constitutional lawyer’s work writing an amicus brief on behalf of Trump and House Republicans.
Trump’s influence on the process was palpable.
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Just Tuesday, House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) stood as speaker-designate. He lasted four hours. Trump derailed his bid by calling him a “RINO” – ‘Republican in name only’ – in no small part because Emmer voted to certify the 2020 election results.
“Donald Trump vetoed Emmer yesterday, and he gave the thumbs up to Mike Johnson today,” said Raskin, also a constitutional lawyer.
Johnson’s last-minute speaker-bid is turning heads of some who’ve served with him on the House Judiciary Committee and know his theocratic approach to policy, such as opposing same-sex marriage and abortion rights.
“I think he was meandering through. He’s not that well known. Those of us who served with him on committees know him, know his MO, know his connection to January 6 and to Trump,” Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-PA) told Raw Story. “But many people didn't know, so I think he was sellable.”
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As much as Democrats are aghast, members of the far-right Freedom Caucus are elated by the party’s dramatic rightward shift in mere weeks.
“Speaker McCarthy no longer represented 218 members, and, you know, it's uncomfortable, it's painful, it's disruptive. Change is. Significant change is even more so, and this is transformational change,” Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) – one of the eight Republicans who orchestrated McCarthy’s ouster – told Raw Story. “While there's a degree of uncertainty and risk involved with what we did three weeks ago, the conference is better off for it. Congress is better for it.”
And the GOP’s now more united than before, said the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA).
“I'm not going to talk about the differences, what we have in common is we’re all trying to save the republic from the radical crazy left,” Perry told Raw Story. “We're all fighting for the same things. We've been fighting for the same things.”
“So what’d we do the last three weeks?” Raw Story asked.
“Change in management,” Perry said.
While McCarthy was viewed as an arrogant establishment creature, Johnson is viewed as a quiet, “humble guy,” said Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD). Johnson is, for example, one of the least wealthy members of Congress.
“He will be a great foil for us with the president. I would love to see a debate between Joe Biden and Mike Johnson,” Harris told Raw Story.
Still, few in the GOP could have predicted a Speaker Mike Johnson a few weeks, let alone days, ago.
“He was in the right place at the right time,” Harris said. “You know, musical chairs, the music ends occasionally, and when it ends (sic), you know, he was the person who won.”
As for Democrats? They see Johnson as a little Donald Trump, even if he lacks the former president’s bombast.
“Walks the same. Quacks the same,” Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-AZ) told Raw Story. “Nothing changes.”