Max Rose, a former Democratic congressman from New York, responded to comments about Speaker Mike Johnson's bizarre facial expressions during President Joe Biden's State of the Union Address — and reminded viewers that Johnson wasn't the GOP's first choice for the job.
A New York Times review commented that Johnson, whose myriad of expressions while Biden spoke were mocked online, had one of the "worst poker faces in American politics."
As the speaker, Johnson sits on a dais over the president's left shoulder — and in constant view of the TV cameras.
"His eyebrows arched and fell," the Times described of Johnson. "He pursed his lips. He couldn’t decide whether he should stand up, smile or frown. He smirked. He corrected himself. He sort of rolled his eyes. He looked down. He sighed. He shook his head. He swallowed. He smiled again. He looked amused and patient when he clearly intended to look serious and not pleased at all."
Rose told MSNBC that, after all, "This guy — he's the accidental speaker."
Johnson became speaker after Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) couldn't capture enough votes to win the position. That came after Republicans voted out previous Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA).
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"When he became the speaker, a significant percentage of his own caucus had no idea who he was, and the only reason why he is still the speaker is because his own caucus knows how embarrassing it would be to have yet another transition in their leadership and how ineffectual it would make them all look," Rose said.
He noted that every day, Johnson is "held hostage to the radical ever-growing, you know, elements of his own party. So he's not just uncomfortable because he's on national TV and realizes that he can't, for some reason, stand up and applaud for reducing taxes for the middle class and the working class, but he also looks so uncomfortable because he has got to be the most extreme leader of a political party in the history of the United States because that's where his party is right now."
See the discussion in the video below or at the link here.
Johnson is still speaker because GOP knows it'd be embarrassing to remove him: Ex-officialwww.youtube.com
