The fourth time was the charm. After more than three weeks of chaos and divisions in the Republican Party after dismissing Kevin McCarthy as president of the House of Representatives and paralyze the Congress of the USAthe conservatives have finally united this Wednesday around a candidate. Michael Johnsona little-known legislator from Louisiana, extremely socially conservative and with a fundamental role in the efforts of donald trump to reverse the electoral victory of Joe Biden In 2020, he has been chosen as ‘speaker’.
The 51-year-old lawyer who came to Congress in 2016 has achieved what they could not achieve Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan neither Tom Emmer, the other three Republicans who were previously chosen by the conference to run for office. He has unified the party, or at least has managed to get the different factions to put aside their differences for the moment and put an end to the image of dysfunctionality that they were projecting. And in one vote in plenary this Wednesday, the fourth after the three to which Jordan submitted (Scalise and Emmer did not even appear) has obtained 220 Republican votes, compared to 209 of Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader. He has not had any votes against his own group.
This same Wednesday, Johnson had received public support from Trump to rise to the powerful position, second in the line of presidential succession and fundamental to trying to advance the conservative legislative agenda. And he takes 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 also has to decide on the aid that Biden has requested so much for Israel as for Ukraine.
It is the honor of a lifetime to have been elected the 56th Speaker of the House.
Thank you to my colleagues, friends, staff, and family for the unmatched support throughout this process.
It has been an arduous few weeks, and a reminder that the House is as complicated and…
— Rep. Mike Johnson (@RepMikeJohnson) October 25, 2023
“Extremist carbon copy”
The elevation of Johnson, with little legislative experience and who until now has not had to work with the Senate, controlled by the democrats and with whom he will now have to negotiate, returns the focus to his figure and his history. And the Democrats have denounced it as “a carbon copy of Maga extremism.”
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In the Lower House this evangelical christian 51 years old, radically opposed to the right to abortion, has demonstrated its deeply socially conservative credentials. Last year, for example, he sponsored legislation that proposes vetoing conversation about sexual orientation either gender identity in any institution with children under 10 years of age that receives federal funds.
He also looks 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 attempts to reverse the legal results of the elections. presidential of 2020. He participated, for example, in the presentation of a case before the Supreme Court that tried to protect recounts in pivotal states that Biden won (the High Court rejected the case).