All posts tagged "Speaker"

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) fired off a letter to the Senate, demanding the body take up their impeachment of Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas — a measure that passed on the slimmest of votes, is vague in what crime it's even accusing Mayorkas of having committed, and that has no chance of passage in a Democratic-controlled body.

"The American people deserve full accountability," Johnson wrote in his post announcing the letter.

The speaker received a ton of blowback from liberal commenters and Biden supporters, many of them pointing out how he tanked a bipartisan border security deal that would have helped the very situation he is trying to impeach Mayorkas for. But he also got a lot of fury from Trump supporters enraged that he agreed to a spending deal that keeps the government open. Some accused him of effectively funding Biden's border policies by doing this and demanded his removal from office....

In what appears to be another potential split between Trump surrogates and House Republican leadership, speaker Mike Johnson is getting some pressure to fulfil a promise related to footage of Jan. 6, on the third anniversary of the insurrection.

Johnson previously vowed to trickle-release all Jan. 6 footage, but the progress after the initial release has been stalled, according to Trump co-defendant and former Trump administration official Jeff Clark.

"On this, the third anniversary, of January 6, it would mean a great deal to the American people if [Johnson] made good on his promise and released all of the footage from the Capitol that day," Clark wrote. "We need radical transparency. It's been long enough."...

Republicans are going to lose control of the House next year, according to one GOP strategist on Saturday.

Speaking on MSNBC's PoliticsNation, Republican strategist Susan del Percio, who has a history of working with Republican candidates and in Rudy Giuliani's administration, was asked about recent redistricting news in New York and how it might affect the national political landscape.

Host Al Sharpton said New York's highest court "cleared that way for Democrats to redraw the state's congressional districts, potentially reversing gains Republicans made in New York in 2022, and possibly tilting control of the House Representatives to Democrats in 2024." He then asked her, "How significant is this ruling to that national political picture next year?"...

New GOP House speaker Mike Johnson is starting his election off with a bang, already making his way into an anti-MAGA advertisement.

Johnson's first moment as speaker was a viral one, when the entire GOP conference announced the decision to reporters and seemed to shut down any questions. Specifically, they booed and someone shouted "shut up!" when one reporter asked about Johnson's history as a 2020 election denier.

Now, that moment is already being used against them....

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is going to plunge Congress into chaos for former President Donald Trump's benefit, warned political strategist Chai Komanduri on Wednesday's edition of MSNBC's "The Beat."

This comes after Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), the architect of the vote to strip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) of the speakership in the first place, came on the program to defend his actions and the new House leadership.

"This was about a personal grudge that Matt Gaetz had with Kevin McCarthy," said Komanduri. "He decided to take him out. He also decided to take him out — I believe, and the facts bear it out — at the behest of Donald Trump. Donald Trump wants a government shutdown. You know, that is exactly what Kevin McCarthy's great sin was. He did not shut down the government and create an atmosphere of chaos by which Donald Trump thought he'd climb back into the presidency. That was what this was about. It was about a government shutdown, it was about shutting off aid to Ukraine."...

The conservative editorial board of the Orange County Register tore into California Reps. Young Kim and Michelle Steel for backing the speakership of Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) — a far-right fundamentalist Trump supporter who was involved in the 2020 plot to overturn the presidential election.

"After a series of failed candidates, the GOP selected – and the House voted – to make Mike Johnson of Louisiana the new speaker," wrote the board. "Johnson is little known, but was neck-deep in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He even sent an email to House Republicans urging them to sign onto an amicus brief in a Texas lawsuit to invalidate electoral-college votes from several states."

None of this is new, the board noted, as Kim and Steele also both backed the failed candidacy of firebrand Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) for speaker. Time and again, wrote the board, they chose "MAGA over governing."...