The Game of Thrones has finally reached its climax as the House of Representatives finally elects the House speaker at the fourth attempt. Just yesterday, the GOP’s internal political plot had betrayal, withdrawal, loyalties, and more drama.
Tom Emmer, the representative from Minnesota, won a nomination for the running as Speaker. But later that day, Emmer withdrew from the race after the statistical probability was way beyond his control. With a need for 217 Republican votes, his own party failed to back him, while Donald Trump openly rejected Emmer’s nomination in his Truth Social post.
This was the final blow to the party’s allegiance, forming a negative perception of the Republican unity. Emmer was the third nominee to drop from the bid for the House Speaker after Steve Scalise of Louisiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio failed to garner enough votes to replace Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy was the first-ever Speaker to be removed from the House with a majority vote on the ‘motion-to-vacate’ on October 3.
Ever since then, the race for the Speaker has been nothing short of an episode of Succession. And finally, after much consideration, internal politics, and alliances, Mike Johnson, Rep of Louisiana, was elected as the House Speaker.
Mike Johnson, the newly elected Speaker on October 25, 2023, has raised a few speculations, calling him an election denier. Since Johnson advocated for Donald Trump’s campaign in 2020, he also endorsed Trump’s fake claims about the rigged elections and his attempt to overturn the results of Joe Biden’s victory. Since then, Johnson has been deemed as an election denier.
Is Mike Johnson an Election Denier?
Mike Johnson harbors staunch conservative ideologies and viewpoints.
In one of Republican’s favorite topics to make decisions about women’s bodies, Johnson’s stance on abortion displayed his black-and-white prerogative. He asked the Judiciary Committee at the Capitol Hill hearing–
“Do you support the right of a woman who is just seconds away from birthing a healthy child to have an abortion?”
His extreme-on-the-spectrum standing earned him an approval stamp from the controversial ex-president Trump himself. The MAGA promoter posted on Truth Social, endorsing Johnson–
“I am not going to make an Endorsement in this race, because I COULD NEVER GO AGAINST ANY OF THESE FINE AND VERY TALENTED MEN, all of whom have supported me, in both mind and spirit, from the very beginning of our GREAT 2016 Victory. In 2024, we will have an even bigger, & more important, WIN! My strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST!”
This endorsement also stems from Johnson’s loyalty during Trump’s 2020 presidential campaign, when he openly condemned the elections and aided Trump’s initiative to overturn the election results after Biden’s win.
Johnson was also the architect of the controversial legal argument that propagated an amicus brief. It was a request to the U.S. Supreme Court to chuck the electoral votes from crucial states that supported Biden. Even though 100 Republicans signed the petition, the Supreme Court straight-up rejected the ridiculously underlying lawsuit.
Hence, in an irony of the century. Mike Johnson gained the rep of an election denier, who got elected as the House Speaker with 220 staggering votes. In the concluding statement, he vowed to “rebuild and restore” the trust of the American people.
What are your opinions on Mike Johnson as the House Speaker? Do you think that Johnson is an election denier? Let us know in the comments section below.
