Rep. Mike Johnson was just another Republican no-name as of last Monday, but his agenda as the newest speaker of the House is now coming into stark relief. The first rule of a Speaker Johnson-led House? Nobody gets to ask questions about Speaker Johnson.
“Just asked newly minted Speaker Johnson whether he believes the 2020 was stolen,” reported Washington Post congressional reporter Jacqueline Alamany at midday on Wednesday. “He declined to answer before walking away. ‘We’re not talking about any issues today. My position is very well known.'”
That’s identical to his blowoff of reporters who asked him about his stances in a Johnson-scheduled press conference Tuesday evening. Johnson’s allies booed reporters, and in response to a reporter’s question about Ukraine and Israel aid, Johnson said he was “not doing any policy tonight.”
On one hand, it’s hard to blame Johnson for not being able to articulate his policy stances; just two days ago, he was a hard-right anti-abortion nobody known mostly for his work as a legal gadfly pushing the agendas of the nation’s most committed theocrats. Now his anti-Ukraine, anti-Social Security, and pro-insurrection stances have immediately become the de facto ideologies of the House Republican caucus, and reporters suddenly know how all that’s going to square up.
He’ll need to assemble a top-notch team of professional bullshitters before he can offer up new versions of the same extremist positions that reporters once blew off as the ravings of a zealot backbencher.
So can we get an approximate estimate here on when the newest speaker of the House thinks he can explain his policy positions? He’s not just on record as a proponent of Republican lies designed to nullify the 2020 presidential election; he’s also the instigator of the now-infamous Republican amicus brief demanding the Supreme Court nullify the election on Republicans’ behalf. He’s gone on the record with radical, far-right positions on a whole host of issues, so it’s not like he’s stumped by the questions.
How about it, fella? Can we get an ETA on how long it might take you to prepare before you’re ready to field questions about “issues” again?
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