Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, promoting a California sheriff who was once a member of a far-right extremist antigovernment group that has been called “instrumental” in the January 6 insurrection, on Wednesday demanded making “crimes criminal again” just one day after traveling to the Criminal Courts Building in lower Manhattan to stand up for Donald Trump. The indicted ex-president faces 34 felony charges in his election subversion, business records falsification, and “hush money” trial.

“We’ve got to make crimes criminal again,” Speaker Johnson told reporters at a “Back the Blue” Police Week news conference Wednesday, paraphrasing Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco. “I mean, it’s just common sense. And I think everybody in the country who looks at this objectively understands that anybody who’s not involved in the radical woke progressive left understands clearly that you gotta maintain the peace.”

“We’ve got to make crimes criminal again.”

— Speaker Mike Johnson at a House GOP press conference honoring “Police Week” pic.twitter.com/Zjh1S7YZli

— The Recount (@therecount) May 15, 2024

Sheriff Bianco had been invited to speak at the House GOP event. In 2021, NPR reported he “defended” his membership in the Oath Keepers extremist group, which he insisted stands “for protecting the Constitution.”

READ MORE: Johnson Would Contest 2024 Election Results Under the Same ‘Circumstances’

“If you love America, if you’re proud to be an American and you support the Constitution, you are labeled as an extremist,” Bianco said.

Speaking at the House GOP Back the Blue event Wednesday, Bianco launched an attack on the left.

“Over the past decade or so, the rule of law has been severely eroded by a sick and twisted progressive social experiment, fraudulently called criminal justice reform. In this alternate universe, law enforcement officers are the bad guys,  criminals are somehow victims of society. We cannot have a country without respect for law enforcement and adherence to the law and order of our country. There must be consequences for criminal behavior. It is time to make crime a crime again.”

“There must be consequences for criminal behavior. It is time to make crime a crime again.” – Sheriff Bianco pic.twitter.com/9YhuvwpetO

— House Republicans (@HouseGOP) May 15, 2024

The Speaker on Wednesday also slammed Attorney General Merrick Garland, declaring, “the Department of Justice has clearly been politicized. Some of us consider this actually to be a weaponized DOJ and Merrick Garland is in charge. He is the Attorney General at the top, and I think that they have, they have used our system of justice against political opponents, of course, the most prominent of which is Donald J. Trump. I was with him yesterday in Manhattan, and many in the press have asked, ‘Why did you go there?’ Because I’m a former litigator, I’m a I’m an attorney. This is an egregious violation. a travesty of justice. They are using the judicial system for political purposes and this is something that framers warned us against.”

House Speaker Mike Johnson: “I was with [Donald Trump] yesterday in Manhattan, and many in the press have asked, why did you go there? Because I’m a former litigator. I’m an attorney. This is an egregious violation, a travesty of justice.” pic.twitter.com/6XQ8bjRwLF

— The Recount (@therecount) May 15, 2024

The Associated Press on Tuesday reported Speaker Johnson had become “the highest-ranking Republican to show up at court, embrace the former president’s claims of political persecution and attack the U.S. system of justice.”

READ MORE: ‘Grave Danger’: Trump’s ‘Raw Display’ of Power at Court Alarms Conservative

“It was a remarkable moment in modern American politics: The House speaker amplifying Trump’s defense and turning the Republican Party against the federal and state legal systems that are foundational to the U.S. government and a cornerstone of democracy,” the AP continued. “Johnson, who is second in line for the presidency, called the court system ‘corrupt.'”

“The speaker is leading a growing list of Republican lawmakers who are criticizing the American judicial system as they rally to Trump’s side, appearing at the courthouse to defend the party’s presumptive presidential nominee. Trump is accused of having arranged secret payments to a porn actress to hide negative stories during his successful 2016 campaign for president.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

Sixty-nine days after she suspended her presidential campaign, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley is still drawing a consistent one in five Republican primary voters away from the indicted ex-president Donald Trump.

Tuesday’s primaries in Maryland, Nebraska, and West Virginia continued that trend, even though she has been nearly totally silent and even though Trump has already gained enough delegates to be the presumptive Republican nominee.

In Maryland Tuesday night, 47,597 GOP voters chose Haley over Trump, for a solid 20% of the vote. In Nebraska, Haley walked away with ⁦36,872 votes, 17.9% of the total. And in West Virginia, she took 21,123 votes, although that was just 9.4%. (All vote totals and percentages are from the Associated Press via Google and are current as of time of publication.)

All three primaries were “closed,” meaning open only to register Republican voters (Maryland and Nebraska) or registered Republicans and independents (West Virginia).

One week ago in Indiana the results were strikingly similar. 128,170 Indiana GOP primary voters – 21.7% – cast their ballot for the former South Carolina governor instead of the presumptive Republican nominee.

READ MORE: ‘Mouths of Sauron’: Critics Blast ‘Mobster Tactic’ of Trump Surrogates ‘Violating’ Gag Order

“Unexpected warning signs for Trump in busy Indiana primary,” Politico reported last week, noting, “Nikki Haley’s performance in the already concluded presidential race could be a sign of trouble for Trump in more competitive states.”

Overnight, Politico reported, “Nikki Haley’s zombie presidential candidacy is still drawing a sizable slice of the Republican vote in the suburbs,” in what it deems “Warning signs for Trump.”

“Donald Trump showed weakness in the suburbs in Tuesday’s primaries, while Joe Biden’s problem with the protest vote appeared to fade,” the news outlet noted. “It’s been a paradox for Democrats fretting about Biden’s standing in the polls: Republicans are more likely to say they’ll vote for Trump in general-election polling than Democrats are for Biden, but there are more protest votes in the primaries against Trump.”

On Monday, before Tuesday primaries, Obama 2012 campaign manager Jim Messina summed it up: “Trump is failing to expand beyond hardcore MAGA base.”

Pointing to Haley’s 20%, Lisa Quigley, who spent more than a quarter century as chief of staff to two Democratic U.S. Congressmen, observed: “These are highly engaged voters, who showed up in a primary, to vote for someone who was going to lose. They did it anyway. This is happening everywhere. They are key to victory in Nov.”

Fox News contributor Marc Thiessen, as far back as March, also pointed to Haley voters as the key to Biden winning re-election.

READ MORE: Johnson Would Contest 2024 Election Results Under the Same ‘Circumstances’

“Nikki Haley won 2.9 million votes in the primary so far. Our Fox News voter analysis shows that somewhere between five in ten and six in ten of those Nikki Haley voters said they won’t vote for Trump in November,” Thiessen said, Newsweek reported. “If even a fraction of those voters deliver on that promise and stay home or vote third party or just split their votes or something, Trump loses.”

Meanwhile, Haley has barely broken her near-total silence, and has not endorsed Donald Trump.

“During a private, two-day donor retreat in Charleston, South Carolina, the former South Carolina governor and U.N. ambassador thanked a group of around 100 donors and her team gave a presentation on her campaign’s fundraising and strategy,” Politico also reported Wednesday. More importantly, Haley has not endorsed Trump nor offered the presumptive nominee any support – including her donor network.

Donald Trump came to the aid of embattled Republican South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, whose story about shooting to death her 14-month old German wirehaired pointer named Cricket has been denounced by Americans on the left and right for weeks.

Gov. Noem not only chose to put the story in her memoir, but has repeatedly defended her decision to drag the dog into a gravel pit and shoot her, killing her with one bullet without even warning her child, who asked when they returned home from school, “Where’s Cricket?”

Trump, speaking Tuesday on “The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show,” the successor to the late Rush Limbaugh’s talk radio program, did not appear to have a full grasp of the story or the massive outrage and upset Gov. Noem caused.

“I’m sure you’ve seen some of the Kristi Noem story. She might be the only person getting worse press than you on the left right now with the dog shooting story,” Clay Travis told Trump. “Is she still in the mix as a VP? Have you thought maybe she’d make more sense in a cabinet? How do you analyze stories like that as you go about making a choice?”

READ MORE: Johnson Would Contest 2024 Election Results Under the Same ‘Circumstances’

Noem, until the dog shooting story came out, was widely believed to be on Trump’s short list as a vice presidential running mate.

“Well, until this week, she was doing incredibly well and she got hit hard, and sometimes you do books and you have some guy writing a book and you maybe don’t read it as carefully,” Trump offered as a defense of the governor whose dog-shooting story came out weeks ago. “You know, you have ghost writers, do they help you? And they this case didn’t help too much.”

“Now, she’s terrific,” Trump continued, lavishing praise on Noem. “Look, she’s been a supporter of mine from day one. She did a great job of governor, as governor. And you know, you look at South Dakota numbers. She’s really done a great job.”

Trump did not say what numbers specifically, nor did he say on what Governor Noem did a great job. he also did not answer the question Travis posed about North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, nor did he bring up any of the other controversies surrounding the book.

“And in some form, I mean, I think I think she’s terrific. A couple of rough stories. There’s no question about it. And when explained the dog story, you know, people, people hear that and people from different parts of the country probably feel a little bit differently, but that’s a tough story. And, but she’s a terrific person. She said she had a bad, she had a bad week.”

Watch below or at this link.

Donald Trump defends South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) shooting her dog:

“She’s terrific … Couple of rough stories … When explained, the dog story, y’know, people hear that and people from different parts of the country probably feel a little bit differently.” pic.twitter.com/EVE7ZTjazl

— Heartland Signal (@HeartlandSignal) May 14, 2024

READ MORE: ‘Mouths of Sauron’: Critics Blast ‘Mobster Tactic’ of Trump Surrogates ‘Violating’ Gag Order