- Recently elected Speaker of the House, Representative Mike Johnson, has not been without controversy among the Republican Party. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who was momentarily ahead of him, withdrew from the race soon after being nominated because of MAGA anger engineered by Trump. In an eight-person field, Johnson was the only competitor remaining after Emmer narrowly prevailed in the conference for the speaker position. Johnson received 128 votes out of the 217 conference members, with 44 lawmakers voting “other.” His conference nomination wasn’t any more compelling.
- His ascent did not relieve Johnson’s ascent. He was the most important congressional strategist in the drive to decertify the 2020 presidential election results, and he voted passionately in favor of it. Johnson provided Trump’s cronies in the chamber with a workable alibi as they searched for something that would appear credible to explain their violation of the democratic process. Like everything else about the failed Trumpian coup, it was naive, but it would work in a pinch, Johnson claimed, on the House floor as well as in cable green rooms: states could reject the results of their elections because their legislatures hadn’t had a chance to approve the vote-by-mail procedures that had been adopted at the height of the Covid pandemic.
- Johnson’s case was based on the spurious “independent legislature” theory, which maintained that states could arbitrarily design election procedures in virtually any manner they pleased. This theory was so antiquated and counter-empirical that the hard-right majority of the U.S. Supreme Court rejected it in the Moore v. Harper decision of 2023.
- If Johnson were to take the speakership, there would be a far higher likelihood that, following yet another electoral setback the following year, Trump would resort to the Jan. 6 plan. It is a vast understatement to say that a Speaker Johnson would be unlikely to follow the precedent set by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who insisted on holding a joint session of Congress to approve election results despite the chaos of the Capitol riot, which was one of the reasons the Jan. 6 coup attempt failed.
- Johnson would also continue the House’s current rabid MAGA course as the former chair of the hard-right Republican Study Committee, orchestrating witch hunts for Hunter Biden and a series of fictitious committee investigations of the FBI, Justice Department, and IRS for trespassing against Trumpian orthodoxies. In addition, he has a strong anti-gay bias, having opposed LGBTQ+ civil rights in Louisiana and sponsored a nationwide Don’t Say Gay law in Congress just a year ago.
- The route Johnson used to reach his unusual position of prominence is the clearest indication of his unfitness. The demagogic role that Donald Trump had played in the latter phases of the speaker’s campaign was the sole reason he was able to switch positions with Majority Whip Tom Emmer. Given that the whip’s well conducted vote counting is both a crucial component of the Speaker position and a solid foundation for the kind of underhanded horse dealing that typically occurs in order to garner enough support to win the speakership, Emmer would have been a perfectly reasonable choice to hold the office.
- Recently elected Speaker of the House, Representative Mike Johnson, has not been without controversy among the Republican Party. House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, who was momentarily ahead of him, withdrew from the race soon after being nominated because of MAGA anger engineered by Trump. In an eight-person field, Johnson was the only competitor remaining after Emmer narrowly prevailed in the conference for the speaker position. Johnson received 128 votes out of the 217 conference members, with 44 lawmakers voting “other.” His conference nomination wasn’t any more compelling.
- His ascent did not relieve Johnson’s ascent. He was the most important congressional strategist in the drive to decertify the 2020 presidential election results, and he voted passionately in favor of it. Johnson provided Trump’s cronies in the chamber with a workable alibi as they searched for something that would appear credible to explain their violation of the democratic process. Like everything else about the failed Trumpian coup, it was naive, but it would work in a pinch, Johnson claimed, on the House floor as well as in cable green rooms: states could reject the results of their elections because their legislatures hadn’t had a chance to approve the vote-by-mail procedures that had been adopted at the height of the Covid pandemic.
- Johnson’s case was based on the spurious “independent legislature” theory, which maintained that states could arbitrarily design election procedures in virtually any manner they pleased. This theory was so antiquated and counter-empirical that the hard-right majority of the U.S. Supreme Court rejected it in the Moore v. Harper decision of 2023.
- If Johnson were to take the speakership, there would be a far higher likelihood that, following yet another electoral setback the following year, Trump would resort to the Jan. 6 plan. It is a vast understatement to say that a Speaker Johnson would be unlikely to follow the precedent set by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who insisted on holding a joint session of Congress to approve election results despite the chaos of the Capitol riot, which was one of the reasons the Jan. 6 coup attempt failed.
- Johnson would also continue the House’s current rabid MAGA course as the former chair of the hard-right Republican Study Committee, orchestrating witch hunts for Hunter Biden and a series of fictitious committee investigations of the FBI, Justice Department, and IRS for trespassing against Trumpian orthodoxies. In addition, he has a strong anti-gay bias, having opposed LGBTQ+ civil rights in Louisiana and sponsored a nationwide Don’t Say Gay law in Congress just a year ago.
- The route Johnson used to reach his unusual position of prominence is the clearest indication of his unfitness. The demagogic role that Donald Trump had played in the latter phases of the speaker’s campaign was the sole reason he was able to switch positions with Majority Whip Tom Emmer. Given that the whip’s well conducted vote counting is both a crucial component of the Speaker position and a solid foundation for the kind of underhanded horse dealing that typically occurs in order to garner enough support to win the speakership, Emmer would have been a perfectly reasonable choice to hold the office.
Source:
The Nation
