Democratic lawmakers are putting the new Speaker of the House on blast, deriding him as a “MAGA extremist” who has opposed abortion, gay marriage, and worked to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) won his party’s nomination to be Speaker on Wednesday, becoming the fourth GOP nominee since Rep. Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) ouster on Oct. 3. Later in the day, he officially won the vote for speaker, filing the nearly month-long vacancy.
Johnson’s nomination came after Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) withdrew his bid in the wake of opposition from former President Donald Trump and his allies (Emmer voted to certify the results in 2020). And prior to Emmer, both Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Steve Scalise (R-La.) were nominated but unable to gain the 217 votes needed to become Speaker.
In advance of the full House vote, Democrats began to adamantly oppose Johnson.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) shared a video of House Republicans booing and telling a reporter to “shut up” when Johnson was asked about his efforts to help Trump overturn the 2020 election.
“Introducing extremist GOP Speaker nominee Mike Johnson. He was a key architect of the Jan 6th strategy to overturn the US election,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote. “Here he is leading a crowd that’s booing and telling a Congressional correspondent to ‘shut up’ when asking about it.”
One Democrat, Rep. Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), similarly shared the video clip and added that many Democrats “like myself are willing to support a Republican who didn’t vote to overturn the election and who will keep the fed govt open.”
In addition to Johnson’s actions related to the 2020 election, Democrats took issue with his past policy stances and comments on abortion and gay marriage.
“Republicans’ fifth—you heard right, fifth—nominee for speaker is another MAGA extremist,” wrote Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) (the fifth nominee was McCarthy). “He led the efforts to overturn the 2020 election, wants a national abortion ban, and voted to ban gay marriage. We cannot let this extremist become speaker.”
“Extreme Republicans are backing Mike Johnson because of his opposition to the Respect for Marriage law which guarantees same-sex and interracial marriages,” said Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.).
Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) argued that Johnson “thinks women should be treated like incubators,” while Rep. Gwen Moore (D-Wisc.) said that he “wants ZERO abortions, and wants to take his agenda nationwide … despite his home state having one of the worst maternal mortality crises in the country.”
“House GOP’s latest nominee for Speaker proudly stated that doctors performing an abortion should be ‘imprisoned at hard labor for 1-10 years,'” wrote Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.). “The extremism of the Republican party is still on full display.”
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) wrote that “Johnson is a hard-right, pro-Trump, leading election denier in the House.”
“Sadly, this is what passes for Speaker material in the Republican conference,” he added.
After Johnson reached the 218 vote threshold, Republicans in the House stood up in applause, marking the end of the nearly month-long saga.
