Republicans Perfectly Shut Down Reporter After She Asks 'Gotcha' Question
The media was having so much fun with the “chaos” regarding who would be the next House speaker that they wanted to continue it even after a new House speaker was elected. And, thank ye heavens, he was having none of it.
According to The Associated Press, after weeks of wrangling, Louisiana GOP Rep. Mike Johnson got all 220 votes present in the House Republican Conference to win the speakership vote on Wednesday, ending all of those “Republicans scramble” headlines the establishment media pointed out.
The AP was surprisingly objective (for their standards, anyway), calling Johnson a “social conservative and devoted ally of former President Donald Trump” who “has been a quiet force within the Republican conference he now unexpectedly leads.”
“Colleagues say the deeply religious Louisiana Republican who calls himself a ‘servant’ will be a steady hand and give them a fresh start,” the AP stated in its profile.
“Many hope they will finally be able to move past the seemingly intractable divisions within their conference that have felled every House GOP leader in the past decade.”
But, of course, playing up those intractable divisions is what the media is all about, which is why it’s playing up the fact he had questions about the results of the 2020 vote.
In an exchange during Tuesday night media briefing, posted to social media by C-SPAN communications director Howard Mortman, an unknown member of the press asked him a typical “gotcha” question about his legal efforts to challenge the results of the last presidential election.
“Mr. Johnson, you helped lead the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results,” the unnamed reporter asked. “Do you …”
Those around Johnson weren’t going to hear it, booing the reporter and telling her to “shut up.”
As for Johnson, he merely smiled and said, “Next question.”
Boos … “Shut up! Shut up!” … “Next question” when Rep. Mike Johnson is asked about efforts to overturn 2020 presidential election results … pic.twitter.com/H1O0drK6SE
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) October 25, 2023
This is much what you can expect from Johnson, who’s been a discreet but powerful member of the Republican conference for some time now.
As for what the reporter is talking about, here’s CBS News’ slanted version of the affair: “Johnson, a former litigator with experience in constitutional law, led an amicus brief filed by House Republicans to the Supreme Court that backed a longshot bid by Texas to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in four states Trump lost: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin,” they reported.
“The brief claimed that the officials and courts in each of the battleground states unconstitutionally usurped the power granted to state legislators by changing election rules in 2020.”
Obviously, that bid failed and Johnson hasn’t been clamoring for a Sally Kohn-esque “straightforward from here” solution. Instead, he’s been doing what legislators and litigators do: legislate and litigate.
One social media user, a self-described political strategist who goes under the sobriquet Red Eagle Politics, described his bullet-point agenda and just why Democrats might not be too happy to welcome Johnson as the leader of the lower chamber:
Mike Johnson:
-Has voted against every Ukraine aid package since the first one and has received an F grade from the Pro-Ukraine Scorecard
-Signed onto Ken Paxton’s Texas v. Pennsylvania and voted to object to the 2020 Election Results, and urged every other House Republican to…— Red Eagle Politics (@RedEaglePatriot) October 25, 2023
Furthermore, as conservative activist and writer Phil Kerpen noted, there was another bona fide election denier in the race: Democrat House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who was braying on social media about Johnson being “a top election denier:”
House Democrats voted for their top election denier to be speaker over and over and over — and the dude is ranting about election deniers. What a world.pic.twitter.com/4Qt5Of2RDO https://t.co/SZyILaaraQ
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) October 25, 2023
Nor, in fact, have these tweets been deleted:
House Democrats voted for their top election denier to be speaker over and over and over — and the dude is ranting about election deniers. What a world.pic.twitter.com/4Qt5Of2RDO https://t.co/SZyILaaraQ
— Phil Kerpen (@kerpen) October 25, 2023
Of course, Jeffries had his compromise candidate in place as speaker: Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who he ensured would be toppled, despite joining with Democrats to pass a continuing resolution and to keep the government open. He ordered his caucus to vote against McCarthy nearly unanimously and seems, against all common wisdom, absolutely stunned the Republicans ended up with a speaker that was more conservative than the one they began with.
Who were they under the impression would get the gavel at the end of all this? Liz Cheney? Larry Hogan? The reanimated corpse of Wendell Willkie? Or — pfft! — Hakeem Jeffries?
Now that their plan has backfired, the Democrats are going to do everything possible to paint the “election denier” tag on Speaker Johnson without acknowledging Jeffries’ own denials — or, for that matter, reality. Johnson was the only man who could unite the caucus and had a plan going forward. And, to top it all off, he’s wonderfully curt with dim reporters.
For every establishment Beltway type calling the protracted speaker vote a debacle, perhaps they should consider how they’ll look back on this in five years when they realize the pliable Kevin McCarthy has been replaced by a guy with proper conservative bona fides and a backbone (and plan) to go with it. Nice work, Hakeem.
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