They Call Him “MAGA Mike”
Before Wednesday, when Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was elected Speaker of the House, he was one of those “under the radar” Members of Congress.
But Johnson’s influence now as Speaker is a major problem for the country and a serious threat for those who choose democracy over autocracy.
Speaker Johnson is an extreme right-wing MAGA member of the House, a disciple of former President Donald Trump, and a protégé of Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH).
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) summed it up when he said: “If you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement and where the power in the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention.”
MAGA Mike Johnson. That says it all.
Gaetz and just seven of his colleagues out of 222 House Republicans ousted Speaker McCarthy, setting the stage for Johnson’s ascent.
“A man is known by the company he keeps” is an ancient proverb. Speaker Johnson’s unyielding fealty to former President Trump should tell you all you need to know.
Let’s look at this aspect of Speaker Johnson’s political background – his blind following of the former President and his continuing role as a tenacious election denier.
Rep. Johnson was a key player in Trump’s attempt to pull off the first presidential coup in American history. He was, as The New York Times noted, “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections” following the 2020 election.
But, Johnson was a close follower of Trump even before that.
Johnson played an active role in defending Trump during his House impeachment and Senate trial and suggested to the then-President that he and some fellow House Republicans work with the White House to provide tweets and other rapid response support for Trump during the proceedings.
Then came 2020.
A review of Johnson’s closed-door comments and public statements in the days following Election Day 2020 by Politico reveal Johnson “as a ubiquitous contact for Trump at key moments, within days of the former President’s defeat at the polls and throughout his increasingly desperate effort to subvert the 2020 election.”
Johnson was, as Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a member of the House Jan. 6 Committee, called him an “insurrectionist esquire.”
“The legal challenges being filed by the Trump campaign are fully justified,” Johnson tweeted after the election.
Except they weren’t. Trump lost more than 60 cases challenging the election results.
“The allegation about these voting machines, some of them being rigged with the software by Dominion – look, there’s a lot of merit to that,” Johnson told two radio hosts.
Except there wasn’t. Fox News eventually paid Dominion $787 million to settle a lawsuit challenging Fox’s lies about Dominion and the election.
Johnson took the lead in drafting an amicus brief in support of Trump’s appeal of one of his voting fraud cases.
The New York Times reported Johnson pushed members of the House’s Republican Study Group to sign the brief and “wrote an email to all Republican lawmakers warning in bold red letters that Mr. Trump would be tracking their response.”
According to The Times, the lawyer for the House Republican leadership told Johnson that his arguments were unconstitutional and then-Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) called the brief “embarrassing.”
Johnson’s amicus brief, like other Trump filings, was a loser.
But, Johnson’s unwavering support of the former President continues.
He has called Trump’s criminal indictments “bogus.”
They aren’t.
He has called the investigation into President Biden “a political scandal much bigger than Watergate.”
It isn’t. It’s completely baseless and the investigation by House Republicans has found zero evidence against Biden. The Watergate scandal, on the other hand, resulted in 48 criminal convictions and the resignation of a disgraced President.
Last week, it seemed like House Republicans might be ready to move beyond the MAGA right-wing era when, after three failed House floor votes, Rep. Jordan dropped out as Speaker nominee.
That relief was brief.
Johnson has described his close relationship with Jordan as “like Batman and Robin.” Today, “Robin” is the Speaker of the House.
Mike Johnson’s new role as House Speaker is a fundamental problem for the country. He led the congressional charge to help Trump try to steal the 2020 election and is now in a powerful position to reprise that role in 2024.
Democracy is increasingly threatened today by the man Republicans call MAGA Mike.
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Fred’s Weekly Note appears on Thursdays in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s and other recent newsletters here. And, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.
