Republicans’ unanimous choice of a little-known election-denying Louisiana congressman with strong ties to Donald Trump, an attorney who has an extensive background targeting LGBTQ people and women to become Speaker of the House is drawing great concern on the pro-democracy, pro-voting rights, and pro-civil rights left.
Newly sworn-in Speaker Mike Johnson is a 51-year old Louisiana lawyer who has never served as the chair of any House committee but did head the far-right caucus group known as the Republican Study Committee. The extensive work he undertook to overturn the 2020 election in support of Donald Trump is also not well-known, nor are his ties to anti-LGBTQ hate groups, including the Alliance Defending Freedom. ADF was greatly involved in rescinding the constitutional right to abortion by the overturning of Roe v. Wade, and “has supported the recriminalization of sexual acts between consenting LGBTQ adults in the U.S.,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.
During his first remarks as newly-elected Speaker, Johnson Wednesday afternoon repeatedly mentioned “Scripture,” and told lawmakers, “God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time.”
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Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent observed, “People are digging up quotes of Mike Johnson pushing vote-fraud lies. But what makes Johnson really scary is how polished he is in creating plausible sounding legal arguments, not his dabbling in Rudy inky-forehead conspiracy nuttiness. He’s not Vulgar MAGA. He’s Refined MAGA.”
Democratic strategist Sawyer Hackett, a senior advisor to former Obama administration Cabinet Secretary Julián Castro, pointed to Congressman Johnson’s celebration of Louisiana’s ban on abortions: “Perform an abortion and get imprisoned at hard labor,” Johnson had written.
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (R-MD), a former constitutional law professor, warned, “Speaker Mike Johnson? Anti-choice, anti-LGBTQ, anti-gun safety, anti-democracy. This is what theocracy looks like.”
The Atlantic’s Norman Ornstein, the well-known Emeritus scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), urged voters to “Keep track of every House Republican who votes for Mike Johnson for Speaker. Each is endorsing an end to all abortions, an end to gay marriage, attacks on LGBTQ and trans people, overturning a legitimate election, supporting Putin. This is a radical, dangerous man.”
Former Obama senior advisor Dan Pfeiffer described the new Speaker as: “Paul Ryan’s economic policies + Mike Pence’s views on abortion + Donald Trump’s dangerously wacky views on the 2020 election = Mike Johnson.”
California Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom slammed Johnson for effectively monetizing abortion bans as a way to create more labor to help support Social Security.
Erin Reed, an independent LGBTQ+ journalist, warned Johnson has already “authored a ‘national don’t say gay bill,'” which “would ban any ‘exposure to transgenderism’ to those under 10yrs old. It could ban trans teachers, therapy, and more.”
Pointing to an anti-LGBTQ group the Southern Poverty Law Center classifies as a “designated hate group,” Reed also wrote: “The Alliance Defending Freedom just took the US House with Mike Johnson’s selection as speaker of the house.”
Johnson worked as ADF’s senior counsel before being elected to Congress.
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“To those hearing him speak, I have heard people like him speak for anti-trans and anti-lgbtq bills all year,” Reed adds, calling it “a horrifying choice for so many marginalized people.”
And former Chicago Tribune editor Mark Jacob observes: “The election of Mike Johnson as speaker is a declaration that the Republican Party is all-in on trying to overturn fair elections and denying women’s bodily autonomy. It’s a fascist party at war with Americans’ basic freedoms.”
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