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      The Maga-fication of congressional Republicans is now complete | Lloyd Green

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      On Wednesday, House Republicans rallied around Mike Johnson, a little-known Trump-loving congressman, and propelled him into the speakership. The Magafication of the congressional Republican delegation is complete.After three weeks of infighting and internal bloodletting, so-called Republican moderates waved the white flag of surrender. The line between Republican and neo-Confederate grows dimmer by the day.Johnson is more than just a garden-variety election denier and social conservative. Rather, he actively recruited his fellow Republicans to sign a legal brief asking the US supreme court to overturn the 2020 election. Apparently, the will of the people meant little to Johnson and his comrades-in-arms. Sixty per cent of them fell into line.But it didn’t end there. Johnson peddled the same garbage about voting machines that got Fox into trouble. In the end, Rupert Murdoch’s rightwing network shelled out $787m to settle Dominion Voting Systems’s defamation suit.“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 Louisiana radio hosts less than two weeks after the election.As Johnson sees things, the US is not a democracy. Rather, it is a biblically modeled republic.Hours before Wednesday’s vote, Donald Trump returned the favor, and gave him an unqualified endorsement. “Everybody likes him,” Trump told cameras waiting outside a Manhattan courtroom.Two decades ago, Johnson supported the criminalization of same-sex relationships. “States have many legitimate grounds to proscribe same-sex deviate sexual intercourse,” Johnson wrote in a 2003 op-ed. “By closing these bedroom doors, they have opened a Pandora’s box.”In Johnson’s eyes, privacy is a limited right, if it is a right at all. Coupled with his staunch opposition to reproductive freedom, Johnson looms as a turn-off to swing voters and suburban moms.Given time, he may yet morph into a political poster child. More than seven in 10 Americans support legal recognition of same-sex unions, including 78% of independents and college graduates. As for abortion, lockstep Republican opposition and the supreme court’s decision in Dobbs probably cost the Republican party its much-anticipated red wave in the 2022 midterm election.Ask Kevin McCarthy, the hapless and desperate deposed ex-speaker; he can tell you.The election of Johnson follows the rejection of his fellow Louisianan Steve Scalise and the Ohio firebrand Jim Jordan, and the abortive candidacy of Tom Emmer, a Minnesota congressman loathed by Trump & co.Emmer had the temerity to support the certification of Joe Biden’s win and marriage equality. In Magaworld, those are cardinal sins.Johnson’s win is also a win for Matt Gaetz and Steve Bannon. Gaetz stuck a figurative shiv into McCarthy. He labeled Johnson a “transformational leader” who was “broadly respected in the caucus”. In the shadow of the scramble for the speakership, Gaetz also took a very public victory lap with Bannon looking on.“Maga is ascendant,” Gaetz told the convicted Trump White House exile. Expect both men to possess outsized influence among the party faithful from here on out. The bomb-throwers are in charge.Practically speaking, Johnson’s election is a blow to aid to Ukraine, and increases the likelihood of a government shutdown. The current continuing resolution led to the downfall of Kevin McCarthy, and expires in a matter of weeks. What comes next is anyone’s guess. McCarthy’s fall is now a cautionary tale.A letter sent on Wednesday by Johnson laid out his legislative agenda. He anticipates passing a follow-up continuing resolution that expires in either January or April 2024. The letter also prioritized the condemnation of Hamas even as it omitted any mention of aid to Israel.Hours later, the House adopted a resolution condemning the Iran-backed terror group, 412-10, with six members voting present. It was the first vote taken in weeks that had nothing to do with the operation of the House or the speakership.Kentucky’s Thomas Massie was the sole Republican to vote nay. Predictably, “the Squad” channeled the sentiments of the unvarnished and unbowed left. Mainstream opinion meant little to any of them.Then again, it doesn’t seem to matter all that much to the new speaker. In July 2020, Johnson voted against renaming military bases named after dead Confederate officers. Years earlier, Steve Scalise referred to himself as “David Duke without the baggage”.In that same spirit, Scalise also spoke in 2002 at a white supremacist confab sponsored by Duke, the former Klansman and failed Louisiana Republican gubernatorial candidate. Two years later, in 2004, Scalise opposed making Martin Luther King’s birthday a Louisiana state holiday.During his 2016 presidential campaign, Trump only reluctantly distanced himself from Duke’s endorsement. In the aftermath of a 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, Trump defended the “very fine people” on both sides. He even heaped praise upon Robert E Lee, the defeated Confederate general.Johnson condemned the rally, to be sure, but gave Trump breathing space. “I cannot and do not speak for the president or the White House,” he said at the time.Old embers still glow. It is unlikely that Johnson or the party of Trump has any intention of extinguishing them.
      Lloyd Green is an attorney in New York and served in the US Department of Justice from 1990 to 1992 More

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      The House Finally Has a Speaker

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      Michael Simon Johnson and Rachel Quester and Dan Powell and Listen and follow The DailyApple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon MusicWarning: this episode contains strong language.After 21 days without a leader, and after cycling through four nominees, House Republicans have finally elected a speaker. They chose Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a hard-right conservative best known for leading congressional efforts to overturn the 2020 election.Luke Broadwater, a congressional reporter for The Times, was at the capitol when it happened.On today’s episodeLuke Broadwater, a congressional correspondent for The New York Times.Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana won the election on Wednesday to become the 56th speaker of the House of Representatives.Kenny Holston/The New York TimesBackground readingThe House elected Mike Johnson as speaker, embracing a hard-right conservative.Speaker Johnson previously played a leading role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results.There are a lot of ways to listen to The Daily. Here’s how.We aim to make transcripts available the next workday after an episode’s publication. You can find them at the top of the page.Luke Broadwater More

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      Trumpist Mike Johnson is the House speaker. There’s plenty to fear | Margaret Sullivan

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      The process was appalling, and the outcome even more so, as Republicans in the House of Representatives finally found someone they could more or less agree on.That agreement, though, may be more accurately described as simple exhaustion after three weeks of embarrassing misfires.And who is it they have managed to elect speaker of the US House, the person in line to lead the nation just after the president and vice-president?It’s Mike Johnson of Louisiana who, as one example of his profound unsuitability, brags that he doesn’t believe that human beings cause the climate crisis, though his home state has been ravaged by it. He is against abortion, voted against aid to Ukraine and stridently opposes LGBTQ+ rights.Perhaps most notably, Johnson had a leading role in trying to overturn he 2020 election.That means that the official second in line to the presidency “violated his oath to the constitution and tried to disenfranchise four states”, as the writer Marcy Wheeler neatly put it.Johnson certainly has his Trumpian bona fides in order. In 2020, he helped lead a legal effort to reverse the results of the election in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and he hawked Trump’s lies that the election had been rigged.Whatever his shortcomings, we know that Johnson excels at one thing: pleasing Donald Trump, the autocrat wannabe and Republican party leader who loves nothing more than a good yes man.This, of course, follows weeks of chaos for the House Republicans, who put up three better-known nominees – Steve Scalise, another Louisianan, Jim Jordan of Ohio and Tom Emmer of Minnesota – before Johnson.In a historic display of arrogance (not to mention the inability to actually count votes), Jordan tried and failed three times. For this, I suppose, we can be mildly grateful since Jordan is an especially awful person who, as Ohio State wrestling coach, reportedly looked away from credible abuse allegations by the team doctor.The failed efforts by Scalise, Jordan and Emmer came after the ousting of Kevin McCarthy of California – no stalwart for democracy, either – who, in the end, acted a little too responsibly to satisfy the extreme right flank of his party. Those extremists were outraged by McCarthy’s decision to prevent a government shutdown by passing a stopgap funding resolution.All told, it’s been quite a month for Republicans who – with their ever-helpful media allies – enjoy describing the opposing party as “Democrats in Disarray”. In fact, there was quite a bit of actual array over the past month as Democrats stayed unified and voted, time after time, for Hakeem Jeffries of New York.Jeffries was never going to be speaker of this Republican-controlled House but he very likely would have been a fine leader of the chamber. He is someone who apparently understands how elections and the peaceful transition of power are supposed to work, and someone who could competently step in as president, should that need arise.What’s the worst that can happen with Johnson at the helm? There’s no way of knowing but it could be ugly as next year’s presidential election looms.Shortly after Johnson’s election, a reporter asked President Biden if he is worried about whether, if he wins re-election next year, Johnson might try to overturn the election.“No, because he can’t,” Biden responded. “Just like I was not worried that the last guy would be able to overturn the election.” He added: “They had about 60 lawsuits … and every time they lost.”But American democracy has edged ever closer to the brink since then.There’s no guarantee that the guardrails that held fast in 2020 would do so again four years later. And, let’s face it, if Trump is re-elected, they never will again.As for Johnson himself, he wouldn’t address his shameful history of trying to overturn the election, according to the Hill newspaper.“Next question,” he insisted.His Republican colleagues booed the reporter who asked the very question that most needed asking, and told her to shut up.October’s absurd drama in the House may be over, but with Mike Johnson at the helm, there’s nothing to celebrate.And despite Biden’s confident assurances, there’s plenty to fear.
      Margaret Sullivan is a Guardian US columnist writing on media, politics and culture More

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      in US Politics

      Who will be the House of Representatives’ next speaker?

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      Good morning. If you want to take a break from the dysfunction in Westminster then cast your eyes to the dysfunction in Washington DC. The House of Representatives had been out of action for three weeks since the Republicans ousted their own speaker, Kevin McCarthy, until yesterday when they finally agreed upon Mike Johnson – their fourth nominee in that time.He takes up an incredibly important and powerful role: the speaker oversees Congress, sets the legislative agenda and can completely derail the president’s plans. The person who occupies that role also becomes the second person in line to the presidency, after the vice-president. Without a speaker, the US government has been at a standstill, unable to legislate or allocate any spending – even to provide financial support to allies abroad.After what feels like countless votes, endless deliberations and numerous nominees, the GOP have finally replaced McCarthy, but in doing so exposed the extent to which ideological divides, bad blood and resentment have taken over a party that was once known for its ruthless ability to consolidate power.To understand what has been happening in Congress, I spoke to the Guardian’s Washington DC bureau chief, David Smith. That’s right after the headlines.Five big stories
      US gun violence | At least 16 people were killed overnight when a man opened fire at a bowling alley and bar in Lewiston, Maine. The shooter remained at large as authorities ordered people to stay off the streets. Lewiston police named Robert Card as a “person of interest” and said he should be considered “armed and dangerous”. This morning we are covering the situation live.
      Israel-Gaza | Joe Biden has called for an immediate end to Israeli settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank, saying: “Pouring gasoline on fire is what it’s like.” Biden said Hamas was “hiding behind” Palestinian civilians in Gaza and he had “no confidence” in their civilian casualty figures. The Israeli PM, Benjamin Netanyahu, said a ground offensive was being prepared – “Hamas is doomed.”
      University | Students in England are left with the equivalent of 50p a week to live on from their loans after paying for accommodation, the cost of which has soared by nearly 15% over the last two years, research has revealed.
      AI | Artificial intelligence brings new dangers to society that must be addressed “head on”, Rishi Sunak will warn on Thursday, as the government admitted it could not rule out the technology posing an existential threat. The government is preparing to host an AI safety summit in Bletchley Park next week.
      Media | Bidders for the Telegraph are concerned the Barclays’ £1bn “back door” offer could have a “chilling effect” on the official auction, according to a source close to the process. The family confirmed they would make a Middle Eastern-backed offer to keep control of the Telegraph and Spectator titles.
      In depth: ‘They’re rudderless and they don’t seem to like each other’Bullying, intimidation tactics and even death threats have marred the race to become speaker in a manner most unbecoming of what is known in US politics as the “grand old party”. Rather than being a bastion of stable government, the GOP has been self-destructing.How did this begin?On 3 October the then speaker, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from office by a small number of hard-right members of his own party. It was the first time that has ever happened to a speaker of the house in US political history.McCarthy was the speaker for just nine months, and only ascended to that role after a tortuous process that included 15 rounds of voting. He secured the job by offering various concessions to hard-right rebels in the Republican party, including a rule that said just one member could table a motion to vacate and oust him. Lo and behold, that is exactly what happened. McCarthy was pushed out by Matt Gaetz for the crime of passing a funding bill with Democratic support to avoid a government shutdown.David says that the seeds of this crisis were sown after last year’s midterm elections when Republicans gained a majority in the House of Representatives by a very narrow margin: “It meant that a handful of members can call the shots and so it really gave power to the far right, particularly those aligned with Donald Trump.”Upon McCarthy’s exit, campaigns began to nominate a new speaker. Louisiana congressman Steve Scalise (pictured above) – a man who once reportedly called himself “David Duke without the baggage” – was selected by the Republican conference. A day later he withdrew his candidacy after it became clear that he would not be able to shore up the amount of support needed to win the nomination.Republicans then put forward Ohio congressman Jim Jordan as the second nominee. A passionate Trump supporter and co-founder and chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, Jordan represents the far right of the GOP and, as a result, could not win over enough moderate Republicans. After three rounds of voting, Jordan withdrew.The race quickly became a melee, with nine candidates, many of whom had no national profile, throwing their hats in the ring to try their luck. Seven of those candidates had voted to overturn the 2020 election. “It was very fragmented with no obvious end in sight,” David says.Tom Emmer emerged as a relatively moderate candidate (in that he did not vote to overturn the last presidential election) but also withdrew his candidacy within hours of being nominated after Donald Trump urged Republicans to oppose him. Republicans then put forward Mike Johnson, a man perhaps best known for leading efforts to have the 2020 election overthrown, a fact he was not keen to be reminded of by a reporter when his candidacy was announced. Johnson won in the end, with the support of all 220 Republicans who cast a ballot, his extreme views marking a win for the rightwing, Trump-supporting faction of the party.“At this time of great crisis, it is our duty to work together, as previous generations of great leaders have, to face these great challenges and solve these great problems,” Johnson said after his victory.What’s been happening without a speaker?“It effectively means the American government was operating with one hand tied behind its back,” David says. While the White House is still functional, and President Joe Biden has the power to take executive actions, the House of Representatives needs to be up and running to pass any legislation, including government spending bills.The dysfunction has hampered the US’s ability to intervene internationally and domestically. Biden has requested $106bn for Israel, Ukraine and US border security and none of that could be passed until the House got a speaker.That could now change, and Joe Biden welcomed Johnson’s election, saying: “Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can.”For his part, the new Speaker has indicated a willingness to work with the Democrats on areas of mutual interest. Which is just as well, as there’s the small matter of another government shutdown looming next month. The House needs to have a speaker in order to pass the spending bills that allow government employees to be paid, without that, all but essential services cease to function – and thousands stop being paid. It was McCarthy’s work with Democrats to pass the last spending bill that brought him down. Can Johnson better navigate those choppy waters?“All of this sends an alarming message to the world at a moment when democracy is under threat and wars are breaking out – many will be wondering if the US government is still fit for purpose,” David says.What has been the response from the rest of Washington?Everyone has been watching this excruciatingly slow car crash unfold over the last three weeks with horror. Republican presidential hopeful Chris Christie has called the speaker race an “embarrassment”. House Democratic caucus chair Pete Aguilar (pictured above) said his party was growing “weary”. “So much of this is kids’ playground stuff, with a lot of bullying, ego clashes and ‘you’re my friend, you’re not my friend’,” says David. “It’s a sad state of affairs that it has come to this.”Meanwhile, the spectre of Trump is still cast over the party. He is, by far, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024 and holds significant sway with the Republican voter base and the party itself.It’s no surprise that the victorious candidate is a strong Trump supporter. Johnson, who practised constitutional law before entering politics, was the architect of a failed attempt by House Republicans to have the supreme court overturn the 2020 election result.“There’s gloom, dismay and shaking of heads. It’s just so dysfunctional and I think a lot of people in Washington would say this is where eight years of Trump chaos gets you,” David says. “The Republicans are a party in civil war – they’re rudderless and they don’t seem to like each other.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionWhat else we’ve been reading
      Guardian readers have shared their experiences of watching Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour (pictured above) at the cinema. Some diehard swifties shared how they “screamed every word”, while others found it allowed for a much-needed nap. Nyima Jobe, newsletters team
      To mark the 60th anniversary of JFK’s assassination, Steve Rose looks at how the president’s death was probably the genesis of the fake-news brand of media scepticism. Nazia Parveen, deputy newsletters editor
      What’s it like to find your face on the body of someone else on a porn site? Helen Mort explains how she became the victim of deepfake pornography in new documentary My Blonde GF. Nyima
      Only a lucky few couples agree on the optimum conditions for a good night’s rest. Emma Beddington explores how we can all get some much-needed shuteye despite different sleeping styles. Nazia
      Scientists have discovered the root cause of why dozens of elephants were found dead in Zimbabwe and Botswana in 2020. The deaths caused global speculation and it’s hoped the discovery could save other animals. Nyima
      SportChampions League | A winner from Felix Nmecha, pictured above left, dampened Newcastle’s knockout hopes as Borussia Dortmund took victory 1-0. Celtic were denied the win by Álvaro Morata’s header for Atlético Madrid, with the scoreline finishing 2-2. Erling Haaland’s double helped Manchester City see off Young Boys 3-1.Football | The Premier League has reportedly recommended that Everton should be hit with a 12-point deduction if found guilty of breaching its financial fair play rules. Details of the charge have not been disclosed but are believed to relate to a tax issue connected to loans for Everton’s new stadium at Bramley-Moore dock.Cycling | The Tour de France for the first time will not finish in Paris. This is due to the 2024 Olympics being held in the capital. The Race will instead finish in Nice and the women’s race will conclude at L’Alpe d’Huez.The front pagesOur Guardian print edition leads with “Fears of worsening humanitarian disaster in Gaza as fuel runs short” – the picture story is a funeral for British-Israeli victims of the 7 October Hamas terror attack. “We are preparing for a ground invasion … Hamas is doomed” – Benjamin Netanyahu, on the front page of the Daily Telegraph, leaves no doubt as to intentions. “Labour rift deepens over calls for Gaza ceasefire” – that’s the Times. It’s more than a rift, claims the Daily Mail: “Labour tearing itself apart on Israel”. “Where is the hope amidst shared grief?” asks the Daily Express, which carries a picture of distraught, bloodied Palestinian children alongside another of grieving Israelis. The i has “Pause bombs to allow aid, Israel urged”. The Financial Times has a picture story about Iran’s place in all this but its top story is “Treasury rout deters US companies from borrowing”. In other, other news the Metro’s lead is “Blackmail sex cop: 220 girl victims” while the Sun chooses “Air rage drama on Ed flight” – that’s Sheeran, and he wasn’t the problem. The Daily Mirror reports “Bulger killer’s parole bid in secret”, about Jon Venables’ upcoming hearing.Today in FocusThe rise of antisemitism in the UKThere has been a 1,350% increase in hate crimes against Jewish people in London, according to the Metropolitan policeCartoon of the day | Nicola JenningsThe UpsideA bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all badWhen YouTuber and ex-marine Donny Dust suffered a heart attack at the age of 37, his outlook towards life dramatically shifted and he was forced to ask what was important.He decided to live in a cave. Coming from an outdoors background, Donny knew this is what he needed. Living in rotation in a variety of caves, the main base had the luxury of a bed which he describes as “a big pile of grass and leaves”. Going through a separation and having a heart attack was difficult, but with the support of his sons Donny understood that “one day you will expire, you need to live the life that you want, find the value”. Now a well-known YouTuber and online personality, he offers advice on how to get the most out of life.Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every SundayBored at work?And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day – with plenty more on the Guardian’s Puzzles app for iOS and Android. Until tomorrow.
      Quick crossword
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      in Elections

      Mike Johnson’s Speakership Reveals GOP’s Trump Loyalty Test

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      The developments on Capitol Hill highlighted the extent to which one of the greatest sins inside the Republican Party is to have certified Joseph R. Biden’s victory.Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana had just survived a closed-door vote to end a tumultuous period of paralysis without a House speaker on Tuesday night and was celebrating with smiling and exhausted Republican colleagues.“Democracy is messy sometimes,” he said, “but it is our system.”But moments later, Mr. Johnson was confronted at a news conference about his own past role in American democracy, when he worked in alliance with former President Donald J. Trump to block the certification of the 2020 election.Boos rang out at the reporter’s inquiry. Mr. Johnson closed his eyes and shook his head. “Shut up! Shut up!” one congresswoman shouted. “Next question,” Mr. Johnson said. Only hours earlier, the speakership bid of another candidate, Tom Emmer, the majority whip, had been felled amid a lobbying blitz from Mr. Trump himself. Among Mr. Emmer’s apparent apostasies: certifying President Biden’s election. His tenure as speaker designate lasted only four hours.Then, on Wednesday, when Representative Pete Aguilar, a Democrat, chastised Mr. Johnson for leading efforts to reject the Electoral College votes on the House floor in 2020, one Republican lawmaker shouted back, “Damn right!”The back-to-back-to-back developments on Capitol Hill underscored not only the extent to which loyalty to Mr. Trump has become a prerequisite to taking power in today’s Republican Party, but also how — two and half years after a riot that left the Capitol covered with blood and broken glass — the greater sin inside the G.O.P. is to have stood with the voters that day and certified the election of Joseph R. Biden.“Bottom line is the Trump wing of the House is dominant and has been dominant for some time,” said former Representative Charlie Dent, a moderate Republican from Pennsylvania. Mr. Dent called Mr. Johnson “affable” and “bright” but said the political takeaway was clear: “A member of the Trump populist wing is now speaker.”Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida, a Trump ally who filed the motion that took down former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, beamed, “This is what victory feels like,” celebrating Mr. Johnson’s rise on Steve Bannon’s “War Room” podcast on Wednesday before the official floor vote. Mr. Gaetz called him “MAGA Mike Johnson” — the same moniker that the Biden campaign used hours later.At a New York courthouse, where he and his company are on trial for financial fraud, Mr. Trump himself praised Mr. Johnson. “I think he’s going to be a fantastic speaker,” the former president said Wednesday.The internal politics of House Republicans do not revolve solely around Mr. Trump. The former president had publicly backed Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio for speaker earlier this month, only to see him blockaded by a more moderate faction in the conference.But the end of the three-week paralysis shows that the party remains yoked to the former president’s election denialism, with Mr. Johnson’s selection by his Republican colleagues coming on the same day that one of Mr. Trump’s former lawyers tearfully pleaded guilty in a Georgia racketeering case related to Mr. Trump’s attempts to overturn the election.“If I knew then what I know now, I would have declined to represent Donald Trump in these postelection challenges,” said Jenna Ellis, a once-combative Trump attorney who is now cooperating with Mr. Trump’s prosecutors. Prosecutors struck deals with two other Trump figures, Sidney Powell and Kenneth Chesebro, in the last week.It was a different story on Capitol Hill.With Mr. Trump dominating polls in the 2024 presidential primary — and even his top rivals staying relatively silent on his election fraud falsehoods — the party appears content to look past the fact that many of the party’s most prominent election deniers lost in key swing states such as Arizona and Pennsylvania in the 2022 midterm elections.For many Republicans, the primary victories that preceded those defeats are as politically significant. Last year, Mr. Trump sought to methodically cleanse the party of his critics, especially those who had voted to impeach him after the Jan. 6 riot. He mostly succeeded: Only two of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach him survived.In contrast, Mr. Johnson served on Mr. Trump’s impeachment defense team. And before that he recruited House Republicans to sign onto a legal brief to object to the outcome of the 2020 election. When that failed, he had played a key role in articulating a rationale for Republican lawmakers to oppose certification of the 2020 results on the floor. His guidance did not directly echo Mr. Trump’s wild allegations and was narrower in scope, but it led to the same final vote.“We know now it’s too high of a hurdle to be directly criticized by Donald Trump” and still become speaker, said Kevin Sheridan, a veteran Republican strategist. Referring to Mr. Johnson, he added, “He seems to have found the right temperature for the porridge so far.”But Jenna Lowenstein, executive director of Informing Democracy, a nonprofit devoted to vote counting and election certification, said she was “very concerned” about Mr. Johnson’s ascent.“As a member of the House, Johnson was willing to use the powers of his office to try to obstruct a fair election and interfere with certification,” she said. “And we have to assume he would do the same with the broader powers of the speakership.”Mr. Johnson has served as vice chairman of the Republican conference and was previously the chair of the conservative Republican Study Committee. He is initially expected to be a more policy-minded leader than Mr. McCarthy, who was best known for his backslapping personality. Mr. McCarthy also objected to certifying the election and visited Mr. Trump in Mar-a-Lago only weeks after the attack on the Capitol, in a trip that was widely seen to restore some legitimacy to the former president.An evangelical Christian, Mr. Johnson has vocally opposed abortion and gay marriage. (During the roll call vote in which he was elected as speaker, Representative Angie Craig, Democrat of Minnesota, pointedly declared, “Happy wedding anniversary to my wife!” to Democratic applause.) Democrats were quick to highlight some of his hard-line stances.Elected to the House in 2016, the same year that Mr. Trump won the presidency, Mr. Johnson, a former constitutional law attorney, will have the least years of House experience of any speaker in many decades. But he is representative of the wave of House Republicans who have served in Washington only since the party was reshaped by Mr. Trump — and who are now a majority of the conference.“If you don’t have a coup on your résumé,” Charlie Sykes, the Trump-tired editor in chief of The Bulwark, wrote in a column about the speakership fight, “don’t bother to apply.” More

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      in US Politics

      Election denier, climate skeptic, anti-abortion: seven beliefs of new US House speaker Mike Johnson

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      Mike Johnson’s emergence as the new speaker of the US House of Representatives has earned the relatively little-known Louisiana Republican a turn in the national spotlight.In turn, that spotlight has illuminated positions and remarks many deem extreme.He tried to overturn the 2020 electionIn the modern Republican party, supporting Donald Trump’s lie about voter fraud in his defeat by Joe Biden is hardly an outlandish position. But Johnson took it further.After the election, he voiced support for Trump’s conspiracy theory that voting machines were rigged. Later, he was one of 147 Republicans to object to results in key states, even after a pro-Trump mob attacked Congress on January 6, a riot now linked to nine deaths and hundreds of convictions.Johnson also authored an amicus brief filed to the supreme court in a case in which Texas sought to have swing-state results thrown out. According to the New York Times, a House Republican lawyer said Johnson’s brief was unconstitutional. Nonetheless, he persuaded 125 colleagues to sign it, using tactics some thought heavy handed.The supreme court refused to take the case. On Tuesday, Johnson refused to take a question about his work on Trump’s behalf – smiling as fellow Republicans booed and jeered the reporter.He was a spokesperson for a ‘hate group’Before entering politics, Johnson worked for the Alliance Defending Freedom – designated a hate group by the Southern Law Poverty Center, which tracks US extremists.According to the SPLC, the ADF has “supported the recriminalisation of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ+ adults in the US and criminalisation abroad; defended state-sanctioned sterilisation of trans people abroad; contended that LGBTQ+ people are more likely to engage in paedophilia; and claimed that a ‘homosexual agenda’ will destroy Christianity and society”.On Wednesday, the ADF senior counsel, Jeremy Tedesco, denied the organisation was a hate group and attacked the SPLC designation as partisan.“The truth is, Alliance Defending Freedom is among the largest and most effective legal advocacy organizations dedicated to protecting the religious freedom and free speech rights of all Americans,” he said.He opposes LGBTQ+ rightsIn state politics and at the national level, Johnson has worked to claw back gains made by LGBTQ+ Americans in their fight for equality.In 2016, as he ran for Congress, he told the Louisiana Baptist Message he had “been out on the front lines of the ‘culture war’ defending religious freedom, the sanctity of human life and biblical values, including the defense of traditional marriage, and other ideals like these when they’ve been under assault”. He has since led efforts for a national “don’t say gay” bill, regarding the teaching of LGBTQ+ issues in schools, and is also opposed to gender-affirming care for children.On Wednesday, Rev Jasmine Beach-Ferrara, executive director of the Campaign for Southern Equality, said: “Johnson has made a career out of attacking the LGBTQ+ community at every turn. His positions are out of touch with the clear majority support for LGBTQ+ equality in our country. His new leadership role is just further proof of the dangerous priorities of the GOP and the critical stakes for our democracy – and for LGBTQ+ Americans – in 2024.”He is stringently anti-abortionJohnson has maintained a relatively low profile in Congress but when last year the supreme court removed the right to abortion, Johnson celebrated “a historic and joyful day”.Though Dobbs v Jackson returned abortion rights to the states, Johnson has co-sponsored bills for a nationwide ban. And as he neared his position of power, footage spread of striking remarks in a House hearing. “Roe v Wade did constitutional cover to the elective killing of unborn children in America, period,” Johnson said.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion
      You think about the implications on the economy. We’re all struggling here to cover the bases of social security and Medicare and Medicaid and all the rest. If we had all those able-bodied workers in the economy, we wouldn’t be going upside down and toppling over like this … I will not yield I will not. Roe was a terrible corruption of America’s constitutional jurisprudence.”
      He wants to cut social security and MedicareAs those comments indicate, Johnson wants to cut programs on which millions rely. Such cuts are widely regarded as a political third-rail – Trump has used the issue to attack Republican presidential rivals, saying only he will defend such benefits – but Johnson is far from alone in wanting to swing the axe.He is an advocate for ‘covenant marriage’When he married his wife, Kelly, in 1999, the couple agreed to a “covenant” marriage: a conservative Christian idea that makes it harder to divorce. The Johnsons promoted the idea on ABC’s Good Morning America.“My own parents are divorced,” Johnson said. “As anyone who goes through that knows, that was a traumatic thing for our whole family. I’m a big proponent of marriage and fidelity and all the things that go with it, and I’ve seen first-hand the devastation [divorce] can cause.”He is a climate skepticIn 2017, Johnson told voters in his oil-rich home state: “The climate is changing, but the question is, is it being caused by natural cycles over the span of the Earth’s history? Or is it changing because we drive SUVs? I don’t believe in the latter. I don’t think that’s the primary driver.”He has also opposed proposals for a Green New Deal and been named an “energy champion” by the American Energy Alliance, a rightwing group that has defended fossil fuel use.… and progressives are alarmedOn Wednesday, Democrats and progressives greeted Johnson’s ascent with criticism – and opposition research.Tony Carrk, executive director of the watchdog Accountable.US, called Johnson “a far-right extremist who led a desperate attempt to subvert democracy … [who] boasts a voting record deeming him one of the most extreme members of the Republican conference.“A Speaker Johnson means more of the same from the Maga [pro-Trump] majority: pointless partisan political stunts, peddling dangerous conspiracies and ultimately undermining American democracy.” More

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      in Elections

      The Speakership Is Yours, Mike Johnson. Good Luck With That.

      by

      That House speaker mess was all Donald Trump’s fault. Yeah, yeah, I know you’re not going to argue with me if I blame him for something bad. (“Saturday night’s block party was canceled because of the threat of rain and … Donald Trump.”) Still, follow this thought.The House Republicans are a rancorous crew, and they’ve got only a nine-member majority, one of the tightest in recent history. We’ve been hearing all week that a mere five rebels can halt progress on anything, even a basic task like electing a speaker. Interesting how narrow that majority is. Normally, in nonpresidential-election years, the party that didn’t win the White House gets a lift — often a huge one. Some voters are looking for balance, others are just kinda bored. Given the deeply nonelectric nature of Joe Biden’s victory, you’d figure the Republicans would have made a scary sweep in 2022.But no — and one of the reasons was the completely loopy candidates running on Republican lines in districts that should have been up for grabs. Some had been handpicked by Trump, like Bo Hines, a 28-year-old former college football star who moved into a North Carolina swing district a month before the May primary, won the nomination with the ex-president’s enthusiastic support and then, well, went down the drain.Trump endorsed three candidates in tossup districts last year; all of them lost. Plus there were lots of other dreadful Trump-backed contenders on the ballots — like Mehmet Oz, the longtime New Jersey resident who ran a disastrous race for the Senate in Pennsylvania and almost certainly pulled down the rest of his party’s ticket.POP QUIZ:Donald Trump, who’s facing 91 criminal charges around the country, is now on trial in New York for falsifying records to make himself look like an, um, non-failure in the real estate business. This week, he compared himself to a South African Nobel Peace Prize winner who served time in prison for his battles against apartheid. (“I don’t mind being Nelson Mandela, because I’m doing it for a reason.”) He’s also compared himself to:A) Abraham LincolnB) JesusC) George WashingtonD) The Mona LisaThe answer is everybody but Jesus. And he did recently post a sketch on Truth Social showing Christ next to him in the courtroom.All that flailing around over selecting a House speaker was due, in part, to the Republicans’ failure to corral their Flimsy Five around any of the original contenders. But it was also very, very much about Trump’s lack of enthusiasm for logical candidates like Tom Emmer, the House Republican whip, who’d made the dreaded mistake of voting to certify the results of the last presidential election.“I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors,” Trump declaimed. “RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement.”RINO, of course, stands for Republican in Name Only, something Trump has truly hated ever since he registered as a Republican in Manhattan back in 1987. Until he registered with the Independence Party in 1999, followed by the Democratic Party in 2001. But hey, he became a Republican again in 2009, then dropped his party affiliation in 2011, and switched back to being a Republican in 2012. There is absolutely no reason to imagine he would ever switch again. Unless, you know, there was something in it for him.Mike Johnson of Louisiana, who finally won the speaker’s job, is exactly the kind of guy you’d expect to come up on top. Right-wing anti-abortion activist who gets along with his colleagues and who, crucially, has items in his résumé that won Trump’s heart. A former radio talk show host who helped lead the Republicans’ battle to overturn the election results! What could be more perfect?“GET IT DONE, FAST! LOVE, DJT!” our ex-president posted on Truth Social.(Earlier, once Emmer had crashed, Trump praised all the possible successors to the ousted Kevin McCarthy as “fine and very talented men.” Quick question: What’s missing in that description? One minor detail — the candidate swarm was notably lacking in female representation. Just saying.)So the beat goes on. Mike Johnson’s friends are celebrating. Much of the rest of the nation is wondering why the heck anybody would ever want to be speaker of the House with its current crush of Republican crazies.Welcome to your new job, Mike. Hope you enjoyed your big day. Just remember that it won’t be long before Congress has to pass another bill to keep the government operating or send the country teetering into disaster.Details, details.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. More

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      in US Politics

      Mike Johnson’s speaker win reveals the iron grip Trump still has on Republicans

      by

      After engineering this month’s unceremonious defenestration of the hapless Kevin McCarthy, some far-right Republicans openly dreamed of installing their hero Donald Trump to replace him as speaker of the House of Representatives.Trump himself, meanwhile, suggested that only Jesus Christ was certain to be elected to the role – apparently overlooking practical concerns of presumed unavailability.But in new speaker Mike Johnson, a previously little-known rightwinger from Louisiana, members of the Trump-loving Republican House Freedom Caucus have seen the speaker’s gavel go to a man who shows all the hallmarks of being their master’s voice – and reveals the iron grip Trump still has on the Republican party.For the former US president’s part, he now has in a key congressional leadership role a figure who, if the past is any guide, willingly dances to his tune.Time alone will tell if this continues to be the case. But having served in the House legal defence team against Trump’s first impeachment, Johnson, 51 – a vocal and extreme social conservative – then played a key role in trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election won by Joe Biden, his bona fides as a member of the Make America Great Movement’s seem unchallengeable.Matt Gaetz, the hardline Florida congressman who was the vanquished McCarthy’s arch-nemesis, had little doubts, tweeting on Wednesday: “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.”But it is the endorsement of Trump himself that has paved the way for the previously unheralded Johnson’s ascendancy – and gives a clue to his future conduct.Trump opened the door to a Johnson speakership on Tuesday by viciously turning against the previous hopeful, Tom Emmer, a Republican whip and Minnesota congressman, who he tarred with the Republican in name only (Rino) appellation while warning darkly that voting him would be a “tragic mistake”.“I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors,” he wrote on his Truth Social network. “RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA–MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”Having seen his previous favored nominee, Jim Jordan, fail after three attempts at winning the endorsement of the house Republican conference, Trump realised that he may have finally found his man.With the fatally smeared Emmer safely out of the running, Trump finally put his thumb on the scale.“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,” he posted on Wednesday.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionBut he added: “My strong SUGGESTION is to go with the leading candidate, Mike Johnson, & GET IT DONE, FAST!”With the deed done, the indicted former president was in celebratory mood, telling journalists outside a New York court on Wednesday where he is on trial over alleged business fraud that Johnson would be “a fantastic speaker”, adding that he had not heard “one negative comment about him. Everybody likes him.”Whether this applies to outside the narrow confines of modern Republican politics is another question entirely.Johnson is already on record as staunchly opposing further aid to Ukraine, a highly divisive faultline in the Republican party and a key priority of the Biden administration.And with Congress facing a 17 November deadline to pass funding legislation that would avoid a damaging government shutdown – all amid calls for spending cutbacks by his far-right Republican allies – the hitherto obscure congressman from Louisiana might be about to become much better known, and more disliked. More