House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) wrote the foreward for and promoted a book full of extremist conspiracy theories and homophobic slurs, reported CNN's KFILE on Friday.
"Written by Scott McKay, a local Louisiana politics blogger, the book, 'The Revivalist Manifesto,' gives credence to unfounded conspiracy theories often embraced by the far-right – including the 'Pizzagate' hoax, which falsely claimed top Democratic officials were involved in a pedophile ring, among other conspiracies," reported Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck. "The book also propagates baseless and inaccurate claims, implying that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was subjected to blackmail and connected to the disgraced underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein."
Among other things, the book also defended right-wing podcaster Joe Rogan for using the N-word, called poor voters “unsophisticated and susceptible to government dependency,” claimed President Barack Obama's race was his "chief selling point," complained that the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) used his time being tortured as a prisoner of war “as a political get-out-of-jail-free card,” and slurred Pete Buttigieg for his sexual orientation.
Johnson, who has previously written opinion pieces for McKay's blog, appeared fine with all of this. In his foreward, he wrote that McKay was a "dear friend" whose book "really could make some waves."
This comes amid a bevy of reporting into Johnson's extreme views, including his prior efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election and his promotion of Christian nationalism — the belief Christians should rule America and dictate law based on scripture.
Despite all of this, since being elected to the speakership after the historic ouster of Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) earlier this year, Johnson has been forced to walk a fine line, doing his best to please the far right while also performing the basic tasks of congressional leadership like working to avert a government shutdown. Some of the lawmakers who helped secure him the gavel are already raging at this, seeing it as a betrayal.
