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The election of this elected official from Louisiana, a Trump ally, ends a three-week impasse that has paralyzed Congress. The new “speaker” has already promised that the first text he will present will focus on support for Israel.
After three weeks of chaos and violent infighting, Republicans finally managed to elect a speaker for the House of Representatives. Mike Johnson, an unknown 51-year-old elected official from Louisiana, won unanimously. This former ultra-conservative lawyer was previously known for his active role in manipulating the 2020 election results. Not only did he encourage President Trump to “stay strong and keep fighting” to retain power after Joe Biden’s victory. But he was, according to the New York Times, “the main architect” of the legal battle to change the outcome of the vote and prevent the transfer of power. And even after his appeal was dismissed by the Supreme Court, he challenged the certification of the results on January 6.
Mike Johnson, now the third person in the state, has refused to answer questions from reporters on the issue in recent days. No wonder Donald Trump congratulated him on his victory. The former president assured on his social network that he would be “a great speaker.” This father of four is also an evangelical Christian activist who opposes gay marriage, LGBT rights and, of course, abortion, which he would like to see banned at the federal level. He hosts a religious podcast with his wife. In his speech after his victory, he often mentioned God and suggested that he owed this promotion to him.
Standard speakers
He was far from the Republicans’ first choice. After Speaker Kevin McCarthy was fired by a small group of conservatives angry that he had joined Democrats in passing a finance bill, several candidates ran for the office, but none were able to garner enough votes, either because they were too moderate the Trumpists or because they were too moderate for the Trumpists they were too extremist for the moderates. If it is so easy for one faction to block a candidate, it is because Republicans have a very small majority in the House of Representatives. It only takes four votes to derail a nomination. Mike Johnson is therefore almost a speaker by default. He owes his nomination to the fact that he has fewer enemies than his better-known rivals and appears more amicable. Although he is very right-wing, he is a calm and collected character. “He’s not an arsonist,” North Dakota Rep. Kelly Armstrong said.
His candidacy also comes at a time when Republicans have been willing to do anything to find a solution that would end the grim spectacle of their weeks of internal squabbles. In his speech, the new speaker promised to work with Democrats and praised the work of Kevin McCarthy. His task will not be easy. He was elected to the House of Representatives in 2016 and has little experience with the candidates running for it
The position typically takes years to prepare. He has never held a leadership position in the House of Representatives, has no personal relationship with Senate leaders or Joe Biden and the party’s No. 2 and No. 3 House candidates who previously ran for speaker. The Trump wing’s ouster may not help him much. Above all, he has neither the contacts nor the address book of McCarthy to organize the enormous fundraising from donors, an important task of the speaker. After all, after his final weeks, he will have to lead a deeply divided Republican group.
Also read: The impeachment of Kevin McCarthy, the great upheaval in American politics
A text on Israel was voted on
This election does not end the dysfunction of the chamber, which has become almost ungovernable due to the various factions. All it takes is an elected official to trigger a vote to oust the speaker. Johnson’s advantage is that he is an ally of the Trump bloc, which should perhaps give him more leeway to govern, whereas his predecessor McCarthy was constantly forced to negotiate with him. He has serious deadlines ahead of him. In a speech shortly after the election, he promised that the first text he would submit would concern Israel, which he did a few hours after the election. “Our country’s greatest ally in the Middle East is under attack. The first bill that I will soon present to this chamber will be in support of our dear friend Israel,” he said. He also urgently needs to vote on the budget before November 17th. And help for Ukraine… However, in May, Mike Johnson, along with around fifty conservatives, rejected the allocation of almost 40 billion to Ukraine and said he was opposed to any new aid.
In any case, his election signals an even further shift to the right in the House of Representatives. “If you don’t think Kevin McCarthy’s transition to MAGA (Make America Great Again, Trump’s slogan, editor’s note) Mike Johnson is enough to show the rise of this movement and show where the real power of the Republican Party lies , then it’s her that you’re not paying attention,” said Matt Gaetz, the Florida representative who led McCarthy’s impeachment.