OPINION | Democrats Have No Business Rescuing Mike Johnson
Republican speaker helped Trump try to overturn lawful results of the 2020 election
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson came through in the end and allowed the House to vote for crucially needed US assistance to Ukraine.
But let me be very clear upfront: that is no reason for Democrats to ride to his rescue should Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) and her band of right-wing cohorts follow through on their threat to trigger a so-called “motion to vacate,” and oust the Louisiana congressman from his top job in the lower chamber.
Rep Jasmine Crockett, the freshman Democrat from Texas, had it absolutely right Sunday when she said, “We don’t do things for you or save you because you did the bare minimum of doing your job.”
This firebrand vowed that the only candidate for House speaker who would get her vote, would be House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY). Her Democratic colleagues would do well to follow her lead.
Yes, Mike Johnson allowed a pivotal vote on continued aid to Ukraine, over the noisy objections of Greene and her friends.
But, at the end of the day, Johnson doesn't even deserve that speaker’s gavel.
I'm not even squabbling over very real — and equally as troubling — policy differences regarding key issues like his stances against abortion or LGBTQ rights.
Rather, Johnson completely disqualified himself with his activities helping Donald Trump overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
Republican Liz Cheney — who lost reelection as Wyoming’s sole representative in Congress because she helped lead the House select committee established to investigate the January 6, 2021 insurrection — accuses Johnson of dishonesty in connection with a Supreme Court court brief in support of Trump’s attempt to overthrow the 2020 election and remain in power illegally.
“As I read the amicus brief – which was poorly written – it became clear Mike was being less than honest,” Cheney wrote in her recent book, Oath and Honor: A Memoir and a Warning. “He was playing bait and switch, assuring members that the brief made no claims about specific allegations of [electoral] fraud when, in fact, it was full of such claims.”
Democrats, who purport to be fighting for voting rights and the future of American democracy, have no business siding with someone who has never as much as apologized for his role in that shameful chapter of American history.
Mike Johnson simply does not deserve the speaker’s gavel he was given. He is a despicable and un-American figure.
Working with Johnson as the speaker installed by the present Republican House majority is one thing. After all, Democrats have long promised to be the adults in the room and actually make government work on behalf of the American people.
But actively endorsing him for the job with their votes, would be quite another.
Supporting Johnson would be to support one of the worst characters in American history of the last half-century or so.
And to do so would not only be beyond the pale, but would forever taint Democrats as they continued to fight for voting rights and the basic rule of law.
No, the only honorable course open to Democrats is to follow the gentle lady from Texas and consign Mike Johnson to the dustbin of history, where he belongs.
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