Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson made two major statements Wednesday at a press conference on his Biden impeachment inquiry, both of which serve to protect not the rule of law, the public’s faith in the credibility of Congress, or American democracy, but Mike Johnson.

Johnson, elected Speaker by every House Republican just five weeks ago, was widely described as a “back-bencher,” (a British term Americans have co-opted to refer to a low-profile or lower-level member of Congress,) yet he was anything but. While not well-known by the American people, Johnson had made his mark during the 2020 election, leading The New York Times recently to call him “a key architect of his party’s objections to certifying President Biden’s victory.”

“Mr. Johnson played a leading role in recruiting House Republicans to sign a legal brief supporting a lawsuit seeking to overturn the results” of the 2020 presidential election, The Times reported. “In December 2020, Mr. Johnson collected signatures for a legal brief in support of a Texas lawsuit, rooted in baseless claims of widespread election irregularities, that tried to throw out the results in four battleground states won by Joseph R. Biden Jr.”

In an opinion piece last month, The New York Times’ Jamelle Bouie declared, “Mike Johnson Is a Right-Wing Fever Dream Come to Life.”

In addition to Johnson’s far-right wing views on religion and social issues, Bouie pointed to the Speaker’s “tireless advocacy on behalf of Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election.”

He noted: “Johnson wrote one of the briefs purporting to give a legal justification for throwing out the voting results in several swing states. He advanced the conspiracy theory that Venezuela was somehow involved with the nation’s voting machines. On Jan. 6, 2021, he urged his Republican colleagues to block certification of the election on the grounds that state changes to voting in the face of the pandemic were illegitimate and unconstitutional. When questioned, during his first news conference as speaker, whether he stood by his effort to overturn the 2020 election, he ignored the question, and his fellow Republicans shouted down the reporter who asked it.”

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Johnson “is, in short, an election-denying extremist who believes that his allies have the right to nullify election results so that they can impose their vision of government and society on an unwilling public.”

On Wednesday, Speaker Johnson falsely described both impeachments of Donald Trump as “meritless.”

It was an important statement for him to make, for Mike Johnson.

“I’m a lawyer. I’m a constitutional law attorney,” Speaker Johnson told reporters Wednesday, a statement he frequently uses to remind people of his status. “I served on President Trump’s impeachment defense team twice. And we lamented openly, we decried how the Democrats politicized that process, they were brazenly political, and how they brought those meritless impeachment charges against the president.”

Donald Trump was impeached the first time for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after “Trump froze military assistance for Ukraine,” NPR reported in early 2020, “at the same time he sought investigations that he thought might help him in the 2020 campaign.”

The second time Trump was impeached, in January 0f 2021, was for “incitement of insurrection.” Speaker Johnson calling that meritless is in direct contradiction of a Colorado judge’s recent ruling that Trump did, in fact, “engage in insurrection.”

“This, what you’re seeing here, is exactly the opposite,” Johnson continued on Wednesday, referring to his committee chairmen’s impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. It is an inquiry that Republicans have been forced to admit, even while on Fox News, they have no actual proof of any impeachable offense.

“We are the rule of law team,” Johnson continued. “The Republican Party stands for the rule of law. And the people in charge of this are doing this thoroughly, carefully. methodically. They’re investigating and gathering all the facts and to do this appropriately and to do it in a manner that upholds our constitutional responsibility. requires time, it requires a sound process. You don’t rush something like this. You can’t.”

Speaker Mike Johnson during a news conference dismisses both of Trump’s impeachments as “meritless” pic.twitter.com/twXn3ztSh2

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 29, 2023

It was critical for Johnson to mischaracterize and demean Democrats’ impeachments of Donald Trump, especially Trump’s second impeachment over his “incitement of insurrection.”

Remember, as The Times noted, Johnson was a “key architect” of Trump’s efforts to overturn the election. The insurrection was part of that effort.

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Johnson also “voted against establishing a national commission to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection,” Politico reported, calling him “one of Trump’s fiercest defenders in his impeachment hearings,”

Two weeks ago NCRM noted the stakes for Johnson “are simple: his three-vote majority is already razor-thin. Speaker Kevin McCarthy made clear Santos would be allowed to stay as long as possible. Will Johnson direct his leadership team to actively whip to expel Santos, knowing his majority will slip even further?”

Johnson answered that question on Wednesday. Despite having just called his House Republican caucus “the rule of law team,”  Johnson effectively declared he opposes Republican efforts to expel U.S. Rep. George Santos (R-NY), who is facing 23 federal felony charges, and a damning Ethics Committee report.

Johnson’s tiny majority would become even smaller, should the House expel the embattled New York GOP lawmaker. And early next year it could shrink even more, given the announced upcoming resignation and exit of U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson (R-OH), not to mention the other “House Republicans who may head for the exits.”

Dana Houle, a former chief of staff for a Democratic Congressman noted, “Ohio law is murky, but it’s possible [Bill Johnson’s] (overwhelmingly Republican) seat will remain open until November. It’s a reason why Santos won’t be expelled; if Santos’ & Johnson’s seats are vacant the GOP will have only a two seat majority.”

And that’s likely another reason why Speaker Johnson on Wednesday declared, “we’re going to allow people to vote their conscience” on the Santos expulsion vote, expected Thursday. “We’ve not whipped the vote and you wouldn’t I trust that people will make their decisions thoughtfully and in good faith. I personally have real reservations about doing this. I’m, I’m concerned about a precedent that may be set for that.”

Speaker Johnson says he has “real reservations” about expelling George Santos pic.twitter.com/JyaluKfVET

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 29, 2023

Watch the videos above or at this link.

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Last week, Christian nationalist religious-right activist and former Arkansas state Sen. Jason Rapert announced that House Speaker Mike Johnson will be the keynote speaker at the upcoming National Association of Christian Lawmakers gala that is being held at the Museum of the Bible in Washington, DC on Dec. 5.

The National Association of Christian Lawmakers, as its name suggests, is a far-right Christian nationalist organization founded by Rapert in 2019 that seeks to spread its far-right “biblical worldview” across the nation and “take authority” over every level of government.

Rapert, who last week was appointed to the state library board by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, is a hardline anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ activist who has declared that no Christian can ever vote for a Democrat because Democrats have “been enlisted to further the antichrist cult in our country.”

Christian nationalist Jason Rapert attempts to topple the “LGBTQ cult” that has allegedly taken over the country: “Let go of our reins of government in this nation! You will not drag us into your pit!” pic.twitter.com/2F2UXrKzYC

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) September 25, 2023

Christian nationalist Jason Rapert is sick of all “the idiots in the country that want to make you think that a man’s gotta be able to go up and slobber all over another man and hug and kiss him and pretend like they’re married.” pic.twitter.com/pYRmZvy7eo

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) February 7, 2023

Former Arkansas state senator and founder of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers Jason Rapert declares that Christians “must take authority” over government: “Do you think that America is gonna be free with a bunch of drag queens running this place?” pic.twitter.com/cUp6pyr4XF

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) February 2, 2023

“This is what the NACL does every day all across this country,” Rapert bragged. “We are fighting against the people that are putting the queer books into your school libraries and trying to groom these children into homosexuality.” https://t.co/frIHtEAF05 pic.twitter.com/USWXPyFxiq

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) March 22, 2023

Christian nationalist Jason Rapert has high hopes for the 2024 presidential election: “My hope is that the people of this nation will reelect Jesus to be on the throne here again in our country.” pic.twitter.com/lCrNGFt8A0

— Right Wing Watch (@RightWingWatch) May 5, 2023

When the National Association of Christian Lawmakers held a meeting earlier this year, participants used it as an opportunity to discuss plans to strip public libraries of their funding, convince states to designate June as “Christian History Month,” and defend the practice of imposing “the death penalty for sodomy.”

This article was originally published by Right Wing Watch and is reprinted here by permission.

Overnight, amid a flurry of social media posts, Donald Trump demanded President Joe Biden weaponize the federal government to “come down hard” on a news media outlet to benefit the indicted ex-president’s 2024 political campaign. While attacking the press is part of Trump’s regular tactics, this time he’s getting widely criticized for his thinly-veiled threat he will do what he’s demanding of Biden if he retakes the White House.

The First Amendment is clear, and numerous rulings have shown the federal government cannot censor or dictate how or what the free press reports. It can, and has, asked for coverage of a story, and can direct a news outlet’s attention to an issue, but it cannot stop the media from reporting on a presidential candidate.

And yet, that’s exactly what Donald Trump demanded President Joe Biden do.

“MSNBC (MSDNC) uses FREE government approved airwaves, and yet it is nothing but a 24 hour hit job on Donald J. Trump and the Republican Party for purposes of ELECTION INTERFERENCE,” Trump claimed very late Tuesday night. “Brian Roberts, its Chairman and CEO, is a slimeball who has been able to get away with these constant attacks for years. It is the world’s biggest political contribution to the Radical Left Democrats who, by the way, are destroying our Country.”

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“Our so-called ‘government’ should come down hard on them and make them pay for their illegal political activity. Much more to come, watch!” Trump wrote.

Critics immediate focused on the fact that MSNBC is a cable news outlet that does not use what Trump called the “free government approved airwaves” (which are not free, broadcasters pay licensing fees.)

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston, who has written several books on Trump, called it “a perfect example of Donald’s appalling ignorance.”

Also pointing to Trump’s false claim of MSNBC using “free government approved airwaves,” former New York Times media reporter Bill Carter noted Trump’s “ignorance is worse than the puerile name-calling.”

“He’s ranting mindlessly,” Carter observed, noting Trump “has several cable nets that are full-time propaganda channels for him.”

But the larger concern expressed was not that Trump does not understand the difference between broadcast and cable TV, but that he does not understand the U.S. Constitution.

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“Thank goodness for the First Amendment, which gives the American people, the private sector and the free press the right to tell the former President to shove it,” wrote U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA). “If Trump is going to say or do stupid stuff, or authoritarian crazy stuff, the press has the right to expose it.”

Former Obama Administration senior advisor and campaign chief strategist David Axelrod wrote, “I think we owe it to Trump to take his words seriously. He would use the power of government to punish media outlets who do critical reporting about him. Where are those who speak reflexively about fidelity to the Constitution but apparently have not read it?”

Former CNN chief media correspondent Brian Stelter responded to Axelrod’s post, writing: “Slight revise: Trump repeatedly did use the power of government to punish media outlets, and he can’t wait to do it again.”

Politico White House Bureau Chief Jonathan Lemire, who is also an MSNBC host, wrote: “Trump again threatening to use the power of the government against media he believes is being critical of him: ‘More to come, watch!'”

Gen Z speaker, writer, podcaster, and organizer Victor Shi noted Trump is calling for “MSNBC — which does NOT use free government-approved airwaves — to be dismantled by the government. Joe Biden does not say this about Fox, because he values democracy. Trump does NOT.”

Shi, adding other Trump overnight posts to his commentary, observed: “So, over the span of one night, Donald Trump called for the government to shutdown MSNBC because they don’t cover him ‘favorably’ & called for Obamacare to be gutted AGAIN. This isn’t how leaders [in a] democracy behave. This is how fascists act—& we must be alarmed.”

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