I think we can all agree that Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has not exactly had an ideal start to his time as Speaker of the House.
He is already taking fire from the MAGA contingent, which is what ruined former Speaker McCarthy (R-CA), and now reports are surfacing that have the media painting a very ugly picture of him.
When Donald Trump was impeached less than a year before the election, Rep. Johnson was very vocally against the proceedings, citing the “irreparable damage” such an action would do the country.
In December 2019, exactly four years ago, Johnson stated:
“If you don’t like the president, he goes on a ballot again after four years.
“We have an election in 11 months. Let the people decide this.”
Now Johnson is about to push forward with the impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden, a move that does not even have the full support of all Republicans in Congress.
Johnson even warned about revenge politics when he ripped Democrats for impeaching Trump.
At the time, he stated:
“What happens a few years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now? You have a Democrat in the White House and you have a Republican majority in the House. Do you think the Republican base in the country is gonna be satisfied…?
“They’re gonna demand that they be impeached because you’ve now set the bar so low that we’re going into tribal politics now. I mean, if you think politics were divided before this, heaven help us.”
When Johnson’s office was asked about the change of heart, it responded:
“The Speaker’s commentary on the House Democrat impeachment effort was true then and is true now. The 2019 impeachment of President Trump remains infamous for using the thinnest evidentiary record and narrowest grounds ever to impeach a President.
“Today, the House is taking a decidedly different approach. The House will depose witnesses, gather evidence, establish a record, and only present Articles if the evidentiary record supports such action.”
While most of us expect politicians to talk out both sides of their mouths based on who is in power, another report surfaced about Johnson that could be far more damaging in terms of the left being able to attack him.
Johnson wrote a forward for a book called “The Revivalist Manifesto” and openly promoted the book.
CNN described the book as something that will “spread baseless and discredited conspiracy theories and used derogatory homophobic insults.”
Johnson, in his forward, wrote:
“Scott McKay presents a valuable and timely contribution with The Revivalist Manifesto because he has managed here to articulate well what millions of conscientious, freedom-loving Americans are sensing.”
Among other topics, the book talks about “Pizzagate,” Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts being blackmailed, and connections to Jeffrey Epstein, Joe Rogan’s racist allegations, disparaging poor voters, and derogatory comments about the LGBTQ+ community.
Johnson has also done guest posts on the blog as well as openly endorsing the book during a podcast, stating:
“I obviously believe in the product, or I wouldn’t have written the foreword. So I endorse the work.”
Johnson’s office was contacted about his endorsement of the book, to which it responded:
“The Speaker had never read the passages highlighted in the CNN story which he strongly disagrees with.
“He wrote the foreword as a favor to a friend, supportive of the general theme of the book but not as an endorsement of all the opinions expressed.”
That excuse is probably not going to fly with Democrats or the media, especially considering his previous comments about supporting the project and the fact he was actively involved on the blog by the author of the book, Scott McKay.
This is a problem for Johnson, a big problem, and one that could not only lead to him eventually being replaced as Speaker but it could kill his entire political career.
The fact of the matter is that Johnson, for the most part, was flying under the radar his entire career. His big moment came when he wrote that amicus brief for members of Congress to support the lawsuit by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton to challenge battleground state election results after the 2020 election.
Up until then, you could have shown people on the street his picture and even given his name, and nobody but the most diehard politicos would have recognized him.
His ascension to Speaker, which very few saw coming, changed all that, and now the media is poking around into every aspect of his past.
Johnson needs to get out ahead of this right now because if he doesn’t, his career could be over.
