The fourth time is the charm. After more than three weeks of chaos and division in the Republican Party after the dismissal of Kevin McCarthy as president of the House of Representatives and paralyzing the Congress deer-conservatives finally united this Wednesday around a candidate. Mike Johnson little-known lawmaker from Louisiana, is very socially conservative and played a fundamental role in the efforts of Donald Trump to reverse the election victory of Joe Biden In 2020, he was selected as a ‘speaker’.
The 51-year-old lawyer who went to Congress in 2016 achieved what they could not. Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan Tom Emmer, and the other three Republicans previously selected by the conference to run for office. It united the party, or at least it got the various factions to put aside their differences for now and end the image of dysfunctionality they projected. And in one voting in Wednesday’s plenary, Jordan’s fourth after three submissions (Scalise and Emmer didn’t even appear) got 220 Republican votes, compared to 209 in Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader. He did not have any votes against his group.
This Wednesday, Johnson received public support from Trump to rise to the powerful position, second in line to the presidency and the basis for trying to advance the conservative legislative agenda. And he took the reins at a critical moment: before November 17, budgets must be approved to keep the government and avoid a partial administrative shutdown, and Congress must also decide on the aid that Biden has asked for so much. Israel how Ukraine.
“Extremist tampered copy”
The rise of Johnson, who has little legislative experience and who so far has not had to work with the Senate, which is controlled by democrats and with whom he must now negotiate, returns the focus to his figure and his history. And Democrats criticized it as “a carbon copy of Maga extremism.”
It is in the Lower House of Parliament evangelical Christian 51 years old, seriously against the right of abortion, demonstrating his deep social conservative credentials. Last year, for example, he sponsored legislation that proposed vetoing the conversation about sexual orientation or gender identity in any institution with children under 10 years of age that receives federal funds.
He also looked at his deep relationship with Trump. Johnson was part of the former president’s defense team in his impeachment and was one of the architects of his attempt to overturn the legal results of the election. president in 2020. He participated, for example, in presenting a case before the Supreme Court which tried to defend recounts in key states that Biden won (the High Court rejected the case).
