The U.S. House of Representatives has elected Mike Johnson, a congressman from the conservative wing of the Republican Party and a staunch Trump ally as its new speaker. The 51-year-old lawmaker from Louisiana was the fourth candidate for the position after the House ousted its previous speaker, Kevin McCarthy, three weeks ago.
Although the Republicans have a majority in the lower chamber of Congress—with 221 seats compared to 212 for the Democrats—there has been a lot of infighting between the party’s moderate and conservative wings, with the latter more aligned with former President Donald Trump. This led to the deposal of McCarthy, who had only been in the job for ten months, after eight Republican lawmakers sided with the Democrats to vote against him. The rebellion was led by Matt Gaetz, a Republican who accused the speaker of making a secret deal with the White House to continue funding Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The House has been without a leader since. The three previous candidates before Mike Johnson—Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, and Tom Emmer—failed to win the backing of all Republican lawmakers, a sign of division within the party. The conservative wing of the party has been advocating for spending cuts, less military aid for Ukraine, and the impeachment of President Joe Biden.
As Reuters explained, Johnson’s “inexperience may have helped him win the job by giving him less time to make enemies.” Fox News wrote: “Moderates and conservatives in the GOP will be a juggling act for Johnson in his new role—not to mention [the] personal agendas of members in the slim majority.”
Donald Trump praised the election of Johnson, saying “he will be a great speaker.”
Trump has every right to be pleased, as Johnson was one of the Republican lawmakers who, together with Kevin McCarthy and previously fielded speaker candidates Jim Jordan and Steve Scalise, among others, signed an amicus brief supporting a Texas lawsuit that sought to overturn election results in four swing states after the 2020 presidential elections. Trump has maintained that the elections were “stolen.” The lawsuit argued that the four states’ changes to their voting procedures during the COVID pandemic were unconstitutional.
His fellow lawmakers from the Democratic Party reminded the media of his actions, with Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democrats in the House, accusing Trump of ordering House Republicans to “elevate a top election denier” to the position of speaker.
“Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. … No amount of election denialism will ever change that reality. Not now, not ever,” he said.
This is not the only issue that is annoying liberals. Apart from supporting Trump—who is running on a Republican ticket in next year’s presidential elections—Mike Johnson is also a critic of gender ideology and abortion. He opposes same-sex marriage and introduced a bill in 2022 that would have banned schools from promoting or discussing gender identity. In a statement promoting the bill, Johnson accused Democrats of waging “a misguided crusade to immerse young children in sexual imagery and radical gender ideology.” He has supported legislation that bars gender-related surgery and hormone treatment for transgender teens. He also opposes abortion, calling the decision to overturn federal protections for abortion a “great, joyous occasion.”
Democratic lawmaker Adam Schiff told reporters he sees Mike Johnson as “one of the very determined ideologues” who is “not among the Republicans who are much more open to working together on a variety of issues”.
In his speech, Mike Johnson pledged to shore up the U.S. border with Mexico, where illegal migrants are pouring into the country. He also promised the first bill he would introduce would be in support of Israel, one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement. Israel has been waging a war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, claiming thousands of lives. Lawmakers approved the resolution on Wednesday, October 25th, saying the House “stands with Israel” and “condemns Hamas’ brutal war.”
While House Republicans broadly support funding for Israel and the U.S. border, they are divided over further support for Ukraine. President Joe Biden has requested $106 billion from Congress for aid to Israel, Ukraine, and U.S. border security. While Johnson made a strong statement at the start of the war last year in support of Ukraine, he has since been more sceptical about increasing aid. “American taxpayers have sent over $100 billion in aid to Ukraine in the last year. They deserve to know if the Ukrainian government is being entirely forthcoming and transparent about the use of this massive sum of taxpayer resources,” he tweeted earlier this year.
He previously explained his opposition to a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine last year:
We should not be sending another $40 billion abroad when our own border is in chaos, American mothers are struggling to find baby formula, gas prices are at record highs, and American families are struggling to make ends meet, without sufficient oversight over where the money will go.
Mike Johnson’s election to the third most powerful position in the United States is making waves not just in Ukraine but in other parts of Europe. Radical liberal former Belgian Prime Minister and current MEP Guy Verhofstadt compared the developments in the U.S. to Russian and Hungarian politics. Johnson “opposes women’s rights, aid to Ukraine, gay marriage & election results that go the wrong way!”, he tweeted.
Meanwhile, Balázs Orbán, political director for the conservative Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, welcomed the news from Washington.
