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      House speaker once won taxpayer funds for Noah’s Ark park accused of bias

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      Mike Johnson, the newly elected Republican speaker of the US House, won taxpayer funding for a Noah’s Ark amusement park while working as a lawyer, in a graphic illustration of his uncompromising rightwing Christian beliefs.Working for Freedom Guard, a non-profit proclaiming a commitment to defending religious liberty, Johnson was hired by Answers in Genesis, a creationist ministry, in 2015, after the state of Kentucky rescinded an offer of tourism tax incentives for the project in Williamstown, citing discrimination against non-Christians.The state retracted an offer of tax breaks after the then-governor, Steve Beshear, said the ministry reneged on a commitment to refrain from hiring based on religious belief.“It has become clear that they do intend to use religious beliefs as a litmus test for hiring decisions,” Beshear said.Johnson, who would win a seat in Congress from Louisiana in 2016, was among a team of attorneys engaged to press a federal lawsuit described by the Answers in Genesis president and chief executive, Ken Ham, as involving “freedom of religion, free exercise of religion, freedom of speech in this great nation of America”.Johnson accused the state of “viewpoint discrimination”, adding: “They have decided to exclude this organisation from a tax rebate programme that’s offered to all applications across the state.”Writing in the Louisville Courier-Journal, Johnson attributed opposition to the project to “a few radical secularists and others” who he said were misrepresenting the US constitution.“One would expect that any project that will bring millions of dollars in new capital investment, create hundreds of jobs and be a tremendous asset to the communities of northern Kentucky would be enthusiastically welcomed by every Kentuckian,” he wrote.“Just as every rational person understands the commonwealth was not somehow ‘endorsing’ the consumption of alcohol when it approved tax refunds for a beer distillery tour project in 2012, or ‘endorsing’ the speech of every stand-up comedian or adult-themed entertainer who may fill the stage at one of the entertainment venues previously approved, there can be no valid argument that the commonwealth will somehow endorse the private religious speech or viewpoints that may be expressed at the Ark Encounter Park.”In the event, the case was won and the park – featuring a vast Ark-like structure meant to depict that in the biblical flood narrative as described in the Book of Genesis – went ahead. By 2017, it had received $18m in tax incentives, according to the Huffington Post.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe episode has been highlighted as emblematic of Johnson’s religious convictions, as Democrats seek to shed light on a previously little-known political figure who emerged as speaker only after three more prominent Republicans failed to gather sufficient support.Johnson, 51, gained the backing of the Republican House conference following the intervention of Donald Trump, who publicly endorsed a man who actively supported his attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election and was a member of his defence team during his first impeachment.Johnson’s detractors say his religious beliefs have shaped his positions on a range of social issues, including divorce, LGBTQ+ rights and abortion, on which he has actively supported restrictive stances.He expressed his views on secularism in a speech on the House floor this year, discussing “so-called separation of church and state” and arguing that the constitution did not prohibit the government from supporting religious beliefs. More

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      The Guardian view on America’s new speaker: the right gets its man | Editorial

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      With the election of Mike Johnson of Louisiana as the new House speaker, the US has now got its federal government back. Without a speaker, Congress cannot function. For the past four weeks, the House of Representatives has been a phantom legislature. It has been absent without leave at a time of global crisis. The return to business is therefore better than a continuation of the paralysis on Capitol Hill.But it has been obtained at a very high price. In September, the former speaker Kevin McCarthy made a deal with House Democrats to avoid a government shutdown. In revenge, eight implacable Republicans voted for Congressman Matt Gaetz’s motion to oust him, which passed with Democrat support. The Republican caucus then immobilised Congress through several failed attempts to elect a new speaker. Mr Johnson has now succeeded as he has accumulated fewer enemies, because pragmatists want an end to the impasse and because the right thinks that he is their man.In other words, Mr Gaetz has won. He has orchestrated the removal of an establishment Republican House leader who was prepared, up to a point, to work with Democrats to keep government alive and to pass legislation, in favour of a relatively little-known rightwing Conservative who may not be. With a 17 November deadline looming for the renewal of government funding, Mr Johnson’s readiness to make the deals that a narrowly divided Congress like this one normally relies on will be put to the test soon. But making deals is not the culture of the Republican party today. And Mr Johnson knows that Mr Gaetz will be watching his every move.Mr Johnson’s profile may be less confrontational than that of other possible candidates. But his record is the opposite of encouraging. He has strong religious conservative views on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. He does not believe that human beings cause climate change. He has voted against aid to Ukraine. Above all, he supports Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 presidential election being rigged and stolen. He helped lead legal efforts to reverse the results of the election in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. He opposes attempts to bring Mr Trump to justice.The speakership is powerful, but Mr Johnson is relatively inexperienced and there are big issues that need to be decided very quickly. They include the terms for the continuation of government funding, aid to Ukraine and military support for Israel. With Mr McCarthy now gone, it is possible that the right will cut Mr Johnson some slack. Certainly, the US cannot afford another month like this one. If nothing else, it should end the system that gives a single member of Congress, like Mr Gaetz, the power to bring the system to a halt.Yet an even larger question stalks the coming months. The shambles of the last four weeks has been the exclusive responsibility of a dysfunctional Republican party, in hock to its dysfunctional former leader, and which no one can grip effectively without risking their career. At national level, the Republican party is now the institutional abnegation of good government. It will take more than Mr Johnson to change that. More

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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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      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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      Conservative Mike Johnson wins House vote to become next speaker – as it happened

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      House Republicans have voted for Mike Johnson to be the newest speaker.The vote came out to 220-209 with every House Republican voting for him.The vote marks a breakthrough in a three-week limbo after House Republicans voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the seat earlier this month.Following the vote, House Republicans erupted into cheers and applause as the Louisiana representative was elevated to one of the highest offices in the US government.After weeks of political infighting and unsuccessful speaker nominations, the Louisiana Republican representative Mike Johnson has become House speaker.The vote came out to 220-209 with every House Republican voting for him. The vote marks a breakthrough in a three-week limbo after House Republicans voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the seat earlier this month.
      Johnson has already faced questions over his history of supporting Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election
      Groups advocating for human rights, including LGBTQ+ and womens’ rights have said that Johnson’s speakership is a threat, condemning his far-right views and voting record.
      Democrats believe Johnson’s central role in refuting the 2020 election results and his conservative views on many social issues could help them win back the House next year.– Chris Stein, Joan E Greve, Maanvi Singh
      Now that the House has a speaker, it’s right onto business. Once the speaker is sworn in, the House will consider a resolution to stand with Israel.The broad resolution affirms Israel’s right to defend itself against Hamas. It also calls for sanctions and aid. It will be interesting to see how Johnson and other Republicans land on the issue.Last month, Johnson was among 93 Republicans who supported an amendment to cut off military assistance to Ukraine, proposed by hard-right congressman Matt Gaetz.The progressive advocacy organization Stand Up America has called Johnson’s speakership “a threat to our democracy”.Following Johnson’s win, Stand Up America’s founder and president Sean Eldridge said:
      “Today is a dark day for American democracy. Mike Johnson’s record of election denial and his attempts to overturn the will of the people make him totally unfit to be second in line to the presidency. Those who have spent years trying to undermine our democracy cannot be trusted to lead it.
      Entrusting the House of Representatives to a man the New York Times called ‘the most important architect of the electoral college objections’ is proof of House Republicans’ contempt for our freedom to vote. The American people deserve a speaker who will stand up for our democracy and our fundamental freedoms, but sadly, House Republicans have embraced Maga extremism instead.”
      The Democratic Women’s Caucus has also condemned Mike Johnson’s win, citing his history of supporting legislation that targeted women’s rights including the 2022 US supreme court overturning of Roe v Wade.
      House Republicans’ new speaker of the House, Rep. Mike Johnson, is a MAGA extremist through and through. While Democrats have worked to lower costs for working women, Mike Johnson has opposed efforts to make child care more affordable, and wants to cut Medicare and Social Security and ban abortion nationwide,” the caucus said.
      “The Democratic Women’s Caucus unanimously voted no – because a vote for speaker Johnson was a vote against women,” it added.
      Johnson has previously voted against the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and the Pump for Nursing Mothers Act, bipartisan legislations that offered to give expecting and new mothers increased workplace protections.He also voted against bipartisan legislation to protect victims of sexual assault and harassment, including the Speak Out Act and the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harrassment Act.The Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group, has condemned Mike Johnson’s new House speakership position.In a statement released on Wednesday, the president of HRC, Kelley Robinson, said:
      “The Maga House majority has selected the most anti-equality speaker in US history by elevating Mike Johnson – this is a choice that will be a stain on the record of everyone who voted for him.
      Johnson is someone who doesn’t hesitate to express his disdain for the LGTBQ+ community from the rooftops and then introduces legislation that seeks to erase us from society. Just like Jim Jordan, Mike Johnson is an election-denying, anti-LGBTQ+ extremist, and the lawmakers who appeared to stand on principle in opposing Jordan’s bid have revealed themselves to be just as out-of-touch as their new leader.”
      Joe Biden has congratulated Mike Johnson on becoming the House’s newest speaker and called for lawmakers across the aisle to move quickly to address national security needs.In a statement released on Wednesday, Biden said:
      “Jill and I congratulate Speaker Johnson on his election.As I said when this process began, whoever the Speaker is, I will seek to work with them in good faith on behalf of the American people …
      We need to move swiftly to address our national security needs and to avoid a shutdown in 22 days.Even though we have real disagreements about important issues, there should be mutual effort to find common ground wherever we can.This is a time for all of us to act responsibly, and to put the good of the American people and the everyday priorities of American families above any partisanship.”
      In other news, Minnesota representative Dean Phillips is expected to launch a 2024 Democratic presidential primary challenge against Joe Biden.Phillips, 54, will reportedly launch his campaign on Friday, Fox News reported, citing people familiar with his campaign.From there, Phillips will travel to New Hampshire and file his name for the state’s primary ballot.Several Democrats have discouraged Phillips from running, in response to the expected announcement.“He ought to go home to Minnesota,” Democratic senator Peter Welch said to the Huffington Post.“It’s a distraction and he’s going to be hounding on the president not because of policies – the Democrats support the policies and accomplishments of Biden – so he’s going to try to unravel that. It’s not helpful,” Welch added.The Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren told the Post that she also disapproves of Phillips’s run.“It just doesn’t make sense,” Warren said to the Post. “I’m all for President Biden getting re-elected. He has delivered for America’s middle class and he’s going to win.”Despite the ire, Phillips’s campaign seems all the ready to launch. A tour bus for Dean Phillips was spotted in Ohio, CBS News reported.The bus reading, “Dean Phillips For President”, was seen driving through Ohio on Tuesday, presumably headed towards New Hampshire. The bus also featured Phillips’s slogan: “Make America Affordable Again”.Johnson is now delivering remarks in his first speech to the House after being elected as the 56th House speaker on Wednesday.After walking up to the podium, Johnson and the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, hugged as Jeffries handed Johnson the House speaker gavel.During his speech, Johnson vowed to decentralize power in the House and have members more involved in the process, the Hill reported.“We owe that to the people,” he said.Johnson has also said that the first bill he will bring to the floor on Wednesday is a resolution in support of Israel.From Punchbowl News’ Mica Soellner:More reactions are pouring in after Mike Johnson becomes the 56th House speaker, following weeks of House electoral chaos.The Congressional Integrity Project (CIP), a liberal activist group, said those who supported Johnson “voted For Election Denial and Radical Extremism”.“All of the House Republicans who supported Mike Johnson for Speaker voted for election denial, a national abortion ban, and gutting Social Security and Medicare,” CIP said in a statement.“Johnson will use the Speaker’s power to continue to undermine our democracy, restore Trump to power, and pursue a Maga Republican agenda that throws working families under the bus,” the group said.CIP was relaunched by Democrats in 2022 as a counterpoint to House Republicans, particularly following the January 6 insurrection and the belief in the Republican party that the 2020 election results were falsified.Mike Johnson has published a statement to social media following his win as the House’s newest speaker. In a statement posted to X, Johnson acknowledged the “arduous” House speaker election process that has dominated the Republican party for weeks.“It has been an arduous few weeks, and a reminder that the House is as complicated and diverse as the people we represent,” Johnson said.“The urgency of this moment demands bold, decisive action to restore trust, advance our legislative priorities, and demonstrate good governance,” he said.Johnson further said that, as House speaker, he will work to restore “trust” in the House and “sanity” within the government more broadly.“We will restore trust in this body. We will advance a comprehensive conservative policy agenda, combat the harmful policies of the Biden Administration, and support our allies abroad,” Johnson added.“And we will restore sanity to a government desperately in need of it. Let’s get back to work,” he said.The Republican National Committee has congratulated Mike Johnson as the House’s newest speaker.In a statement released following the House vote, RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said:
      “Congratulations to the new speaker of the House, Mike Johnson! In eight months, the Republican House majority passed bills to lower energy costs, secure the border, defend parents’ rights, improve public safety, and more. When Republicans come together, we deliver results, and that’s what we need to showcase ahead of 2024. We delivered this majority to bring solutions to the American people. It’s time for Republicans to unite behind speaker Johnson and get back to work.”
      House Republicans have voted for Mike Johnson to be the newest speaker.The vote came out to 220-209 with every House Republican voting for him.The vote marks a breakthrough in a three-week limbo after House Republicans voted to oust Kevin McCarthy from the seat earlier this month.Following the vote, House Republicans erupted into cheers and applause as the Louisiana representative was elevated to one of the highest offices in the US government.Steve Scalise, once a top contender of the House speaker race only to then drop out, has voted for Mike Johnson.As with Kevin McCarthy and Patrick McHenry’s votes for Johnson, Republicans stood up and applauded the Louisiana Republican for his vote.Patrick McHenry, the House speaker pro tempore, has cast his vote for Mike Johnson as the next House speaker.Republicans stood and applauded the North Carolina Republican representative.Former House speaker Kevin McCarthy has voted for Mike Johnson as the next House speaker.In response, House Republicans stood up around him and clapped.The Democratic National Committee has criticized Mike Johnson’s House speaker nomination, calling the Louisiana representative the “new Maga speaker-designate”.In a statement released on Wednesday, a DNC spokesperson, Sarafina Chitika said:
      “Many Americans are waking up this morning wondering – who is Mike Johnson? We’re here to help: Maga Republicans’ new speaker-designate supports extreme nationwide abortion bans. He led the charge for Donald Trump denying president Biden’s legitimate election win and tried to overthrow the votes of 81 million Americans.
      He’s a leading proponent of slashing Social Security and Medicare. Mike Johnson is a carbon-copy of the Maga extremism that is deeply unpopular with Americans across the country. House Republicans will have to answer for their support for their new Maga speaker next November. Make no mistake: the American people will hold them accountable for this choice.” More

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

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      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

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      Mike Johnson helped Trump on January 6 – now he’s a threat to democracy

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      The Louisiana congressman Mike Johnson, whom Republicans in Congress elected as their speaker after more than three weeks of leaderless chaos, played a key role in Donald Trump’s attempts to subvert the results of the 2020 election.Johnson amassed enough support to win the speakership because of his allegiance to Trumpian ideals, earning him the nickname on the far right of “Maga Mike”. A litmus test of sorts for the speakership was alignment with rightwing views, including believing in a stolen election, though the firebrand approach of failed speaker candidate Jim Jordan soured moderate members, despite his election-denying bonafides.Johnson’s victory brought swift alarm from groups defending US democracy, which pointed to the prominent role Johnson will take in US politics before a crucial 2024 presidential election, and how election denialism is clearly no longer a fringe view in the Republican party.Johnson was more involved than his predecessor Kevin McCarthy in efforts to overturn the 2020 election; McCarthy tolerated and often condoned election denialism and voted against certifying the 2020 vote, but didn’t go as far as the right-most flank.Johnson, a lesser-known lawmaker, is perhaps most notable for his role in attempting to overturn Democratic president Joe Biden’s victory. His arguments against the votes, noting how states changed voting rules because of the pandemic, became a “narrow and lawyerly” way for members of Congress to object to the vote count on January 6, with Johnson as “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections”, the New York Times reported.Johnson, who is a constitutional lawyer, also circulated an amicus brief – signed by more than 100 Republican lawmakers, including McCarthy – and filed it in a Texas court case to contest the results in four swing states.A few days after the 2020 election, Johnson wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “I have just called President Trump to say this: ‘Stay strong and keep fighting, sir! The nation is depending upon your resolve. We must exhaust every available legal remedy to restore Americans’ trust in the fairness of our election system.’”Johnson’s ascension shows the state of the mainstream Republican party today – their firm denial of the 2020 election and allegiance to Trump, said Gunner Ramer, the political director for the Republican Accountability Project. A more moderate Republican speaker nominee, the congressman Tom Emmer, failed to win over Trump and the far right, who saw him as a Republican in Name Only, or Rino.Johnson’s win “speaks to the total disregard that the Republican party has had and still has for democratic institutions and the rule of law”, Ramer said. “Propping up someone like Mike Johnson should expose that fact within the Republican party.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionStand Up America, a progressive advocacy group, called it a “dark day for American democracy”.“Mike Johnson’s record of election denial and his attempts to overturn the will of the people make him totally unfit to be second in line to the presidency,” the group’s founder and president, Sean Eldridge, said. “Those who have spent years trying to undermine our democracy cannot be trusted to lead it.”Already, Johnson and his supporters have made clear they don’t want to answer questions about the 2020 election. In a press conference Tuesday, when a reporter noted Johnson’s role and attempted to ask a question, she was met with boos and derision from Johnson and his allies. More