After three weeks, the spectacle led by the Republicans in the United States House of Representatives came to an end. They ultimately chose the fourth figure of their own choosing as their candidate to succeed Kevin McCarthy, the first president of that body to be dismissed – at the initiative of the far right of the party with a majority in the lower house of Congress. The arrival of Mike Johnson to the third place in the hierarchy, elected unanimously among Republicans, was further proof of the intact influence of Donald Trump, as the news about the trials in which he is involved is not positive.
“Now we have a man and a plan,” Matt Gaetz said Wall Street Journal about Johnson’s choice. Gaetz, the Florida representative who maneuvered McCarthy’s impeachment because he was willing to negotiate with Democrats over the debt ceiling, imposed the will of the extremist fringe with the former president’s blessing.
Johnson, 51 years old, with a degree in constitutional law, is an evangelical Christian. He and his wife raise four children and have a podcast dedicated to religion and politics. As a lawyer, he successfully defended Louisiana’s ban on same-sex marriage before the Louisiana Supreme Court. He was first elected in 2015, first as a state representative and then from 2017 onwards as a representative of his home state in Washington, so discreetly that Senator Susan Collins, also a Republican, said she would look for information on Google.
Johnson, a wolf of conservatism in sheep’s clothing, contrasts in form with the bully style of Gaetz or Jim Jordan, the failed bid of the far right wing for the post of Speaker of the House of Representatives. Behind politeness and kindness, Johnson extends his religious beliefs into political action, as an activist against the right to abortion and against marriage other than between a man and a woman.
The new speaker raised democratic eyebrows on two fronts. In support of Ukraine, he was among Republicans who shifted from unconditional support to an increasingly skeptical stance after voting against larger aid packages.
The other front is not as urgent, but no less important. As a representative, Johnson was Trump’s go-to man in his effort to undermine the election results that gave Biden victory.
He first filed a report on behalf of himself and 125 other representatives with the Supreme Court denouncing alleged “unconstitutional irregularities” in the election, supplementing a case filed by the Texas attorney general. The judges did not rule and the congressman complained about the quality of Trump’s lawyers as he continued to spread conspiracy theories about electronic voting machines. On the eve of the infamous day the Capitol was invaded, Johnson argued to colleagues that some states had changed voting rules due to the pandemic, which would be unconstitutional and justify the vote against certifying Biden’s election.
The Democratic president seemed unconcerned about having a man in the line of succession who was attacking democracy. “No, just like I wasn’t worried about the previous person being able to overturn the election,” Biden told reporters.
The web of justice tightens
The ‘previous person’ had campaigned for Johnson and assured him he would do a ‘great job’. The paradox between Trump’s apparent political victories and justice problems is becoming increasingly visible.
After Trump’s legal team lost five appeals, a trial will begin next week in Colorado that will determine whether the former president was involved in the January 2021 insurrection, and as a result, whether he can run for office in the 2024 presidential election. based on the 14th. Amendment to the Constitution, CNN reported.
In New York, Trump was fined twice for violating the silence order against witnesses or court staff in the civil case in which he is accused of fraud.
In Washington, special prosecutor Jack Smith asked the judge to reissue a gag order after it was suspended at the defense’s request. Trump took the opportunity to attack Smith three times and made comments about witnesses. But the biggest headache for Trump comes from Georgia: As many as three lawyers who worked for Trump in an effort to undermine the election pleaded guilty and vowed to cooperate with the state judge in the case in which he is charged with 13 crimes.
Source: DN
