'A disgraceful display of political arrogance': Editorial buries GOP over new speaker

'A disgraceful display of political arrogance': Editorial buries GOP over new speaker
(CSPAN screenshot)

The editorial board of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch dropped the hammer on House Republicans for making Rep. Michael Johnson (R-LA) the new speaker, pointing out that his attempts to help Donald Trump subvert the 2020 presidential election should disqualify him from public office.

In a biting editorial published on Friday, the board pointed to a post-speaker election press availability when a raucous assemblage of far-right House colleagues shouted down a reporter's question about Johnson's part in trying to undercut the will of the voters and keep Donald Trump in office.

As the editors noted, they disagree with Johnson's stand on just about everything — but that shouldn't be disqualifying.

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?

What is disqualifying, they wrote, was his attempt to undermine democracy by taking the lead in the House in a plot to steal the election.

Calling the press conference where Rep. Virginia Fox (R-NC) repeatedly shouted "shut up" at the reporter "a disgraceful display of political arrogance," the editors added it was "a reminder that most of the GOP House majority still doesn’t get it."

"The entire attempt to overturn the 2020 election was an illegitimate, arguably criminal, demonstrably dangerous attack on Americans’ fundamental right to have their votes counted. Any involvement in it at all should be politically disqualifying. Instead, one of democracy’s assailants now has one of America’s biggest gavels," they accused.

"True conservatives, who traditionally care about rule of law and fealty to the Constitution, should consider that the House is now led by a man who assertively attempted to disenfranchise millions of voters at the behest of a president determined to hold onto power despite having been voted out of office," they continued before concluding, "That is not conservative at all. And it should give pause to anyone, of any party or political philosophy, who values democracy."

You can watch a clip of the "disgraceful' press conference below.

Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) tells reporter to 'shut up' youtu.be

For customer support contact support@rawstory.com. Report typos and corrections to corrections@rawstory.com.

Political analysts sounded the alarm on Sunday over the Supreme Court sending President Donald Trump a "galling" signal in its most recent spate of rulings.

In Trump v. Barbara, the case seeking to invalidate birthright citizenship, four justices signaled they were willing to let Trump rewrite the meaning of the 14th Amendment by executive order, even though the case was decided 6-3 on paper. The Constitution requires amendments to be passed through a state convention process, with two-thirds of the states needing to ratify any changes.

Trump has demanded that the Supreme Court rehear the case, which could make it only the second case the Court has revisited.

Analyst David Pakman and independent journalist Katie Phang reacted to the ruling on a new episode of "The David Pakman Show" on YouTube.

"That, to me, seems like a massive red alert here," Pakman said about the ruling.

Phang noted that the case was part of a bigger trend from the "deeply flawed" Supreme Court.

"I'm going to go even farther back in the kind of process and history here and say, this birthright citizen never should have been taken up by the Supreme Court in the first instance, and their willingness to take up that type of case shows that there's something deeply, deeply flawed about this current iteration of the Supreme Court of the United States," Phang said. "The fact that you do have some justices that are like, 'Yeah, maybe we can flirt with this idea now of doing away with an amendment that guarantees birthright citizenship.' That is galling and yet not surprising, considering the kind of downward spiral we've seen coming from these decisions."

THANKS FOR SUBSCRIBING! ALL ADS REMOVED!

Sen. Lindsey Graham's (R-SC) death on Saturday reveals the reason he sold out to support President Donald Trump in the first place was a "poignantly tragic" goal that Graham will never accomplish, according to one analyst.

Will Saletan, a writer at The Bulwark, said during a new episode of the podcast "Bulwark Takes," hosted by Sam Stein, the outlet's managing editor, that Graham seemed to sell out to Trump to protect the "soul" of the Republican Party. Saletan surmised that Graham sought to influence Trump from the inside rather than trying to browbeat the president from outside Congress.

"What he sold out for was some influence on Trump's foreign policy, but also keeping his job," Saletan said.

He recalled how Graham seemed to extend an olive branch to Trump after Graham retained his seat in the 2020 general election. Instead of asking Republicans to turn over a new leaf after Trump's loss, Graham helped "bring Donald Trump back," Saletan said.

Saletan added that Graham was about to see the payoff from all of that work after he won re-election in November. Even if Democrats won both chambers, Graham would have been in Congress to see Trump being held accountable.

"This is what it was all for," Saletan said. "All the work he did to bring back Trump and the further sellout, and he's not going to get it. And, I don't know how to describe how poignant and tragic that is for him and for our country."

Graham died suddenly on Saturday night after suffering from cardiac arrest, according to reports. His death dealt the Trump administration a significant blow in its efforts to smooth over relations between the White House and Congressional lawmakers, according to some analysts.

Sen. Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) Sunday statement updating the public on his health raised red flags for at least one political analyst.

Camila DeChalus, a CNN political reporter based in Washington, D.C., said on Sunday's broadcast of "CNN Newsroom" that McConnell's statement was a "defining moment" in the saga because of what the senator revealed about himself.

"You all know how folks of my generation often hesitate to share the vulnerability that comes with growing older. Even in the public eye, I feel that same instinct – I can’t help it. But at the same time, I’ve had more than my share of experience with physical vulnerabilities," McConnell's statement reads in part.

DeChalus said the amount of vulnerability that McConnell showed in his statement was "telling."

"That's what made his recent hospitalization this time around that he remained a little bit silent on what transpired," she said.

DeChalus also described McConnell's statement as a "defining moment" in American politics.

"This is a really key defining moment because you have this past week where the democratic governor of Kentucky put out a public letter requesting a health update from the senator and really lamenting about how his constituents have the right to know about his current health condition and ... most importantly, whether he is still fit to continue to serve in office," DeChalus noted. "And really, in this statement, he really does detail laying out what he's been through and his path, how open and public his other hospitalizations were, and why he kind of remained silent on this."

{{ post.roar_specific_data.api_data.analytics }}