Mike Johnson Said He Wanted to Revisit Supreme Court Decision That Legalized Gay Sex
CNN Wire
November 22, 2023·10 min read
1.7k



Mike Johnson

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By Andrew Kaczynski and Curt Devine, CNN

(CNN) — Mike Johnson, the new speaker of the House, voiced support for revisiting Supreme Court decisions that struck down restrictions on the use of contraception, barred bans on gay sex and legalized same sex marriages, according to a CNN review of his prior public statements.

On a conservative talk radio show the day the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022, Johnson underscored Justice Clarence Thomas’s concurring opinion that the high court should reconsider those other landmark rulings.


Johnson, citing his years as an attorney against “activist courts,” defended Thomas’ view, insisting that what Thomas was calling for was, “not radical. In fact, it’s the opposite of that.”

“There’s been some really bad law made,” he said. “They’ve made a mess of our jurisprudence in this country for the last several decades. And maybe some of that needs to be cleaned up.”

When asked about Johnson’s post-Roe comments, a spokesman for the congressman told CNN that Johnson “views the cases as settled law.”

Still, CNN’s review of more than 100 of Johnson’s interviews, speeches and public commentary spanning his decades-long career as a lawmaker and attorney paints a picture of his governing ideals: Imprisoning doctors who perform abortions after six weeks; the Ten Commandments prominently displayed in public buildings; an elimination of anti-hate-crime laws; Bible study in public schools.

From endorsing hard labor prison sentences for abortion providers to supporting the criminalization of gay sex, his staunchly conservative rhetoric is rooted in an era of “biblical morality,” that he says was washed away with the counterculture in the 1960s.

“One of the primary purposes of the law in civil government is to restrain evil,” Johnson said on one radio show in 2010. “We have to acknowledge collectively that man is inherently evil and needs to be restrained.”

His vision has been well received as a congressman in his deeply conservative district in western Louisiana. But his surprising rise to the speakership has brought his particularly subtle brand of fire-and-brimstone to second in line to the presidency — delivering him a national platform from which to shape and influence laws.

Johnson’s endorsement of Thomas’ opinion, legal experts say, positioned him significantly outside the mainstream.

“Speaker Johnson embraces a view that is not only outside of the mainstream but is so radical in terms of his endorsement of the Thomas position, that even the extremely conservative Supreme Court majority isn’t willing to go there,” said Norm Eisen, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and a CNN legal analyst. “It would take the country back more than a half-century.”

The frontlines of the culture war
CNN unearthed more than two dozen radio interviews from Johnson’s time as an attorney at the socially conservative legal advocacy group Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) where Johnson litigated and voiced support for what he sometimes described as a battle for the country between the forces of good and evil.

“The arrows in the culture war are particularly directed at our youth, where the Enemy often has the greatest effect,” read the 2005 webpage for “God & Country,” a Christian local radio show co-hosted by Johnson. “We cannot lose our children to the forces of darkness. Be aware and get active in your kids’ schools.”

Topics discussed on the show included “creation science” in public schools; how to “fight the porn industry”; God’s “design for government”; and “the true meaning of ‘separation of church and state.’”

As an attorney at ADF, Johnson repeatedly battled two organizations in his fight to keep religion in the public square: The American Civil Liberties Union, which he called “the most dangerous organization in America,” and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. The groups clashed over prayer in public schools, public displays of nativity scenes and the right to open public meetings with prayer.

“They have convinced an entire generation of Americans that there’s this so-called separation of church and state,” Johnson said in 2008 about the ACLU.

Johnson’s rhetoric has tapped into a “persecution complex” for evangelicals as American culture leans increasingly left on social issues, said Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor.

“They want to feel embattled. They want to fight the culture war,” Burge told CNN.

“When he talks about Griswold and Lawrence, evangelicals know that what he really is saying to them is: ‘Our way of life is under attack and liberalism is on the march. Stand firm in our convictions,’” added Burge, referring to the landmark cases that legalized gay sex and contraception use.

Johnson served not only as an attorney at ADF but a national spokesman for the organization, making appearances on radio and national television where he often addressed so-called “right of conscience” cases involving Christian businesses.

Discussing one case in New Mexico, where a wedding photography company was found in violation of the state’s anti-discrimination laws for refusing to photograph a same-sex couple’s commitment ceremony, Johnson argued anti-discrimination laws did not recognize a “behavior” like homosexuality.

“There are laws on the books that prohibit discrimination against people for their immutable characteristics, their race and creed and that kind of thing,” Johnson said in a 2009 radio interview. “There’s a difference – and the law has recognized a difference – between that and homosexual behavior. As something that you do, not an immutable characteristic of what you are.”

The New Mexico Supreme Court disagreed and ruled against the company, which ADF represented. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Johnson “doesn’t understand the problem with a government compelling its citizens to follow not just religion, but a particular religion,” said Katherine Lewis Parker, the former legal director for the ACLU of North Carolina, who opposed Johnson in a lawsuit related to prayer at official meetings.

In that 2007 suit, three residents in Forsyth County, North Carolina, argued local officials had an unconstitutional “practice of sponsoring sectarian prayer” with specific references to Jesus during meetings. Johnson defended the officials and argued that even in Congress, prayers often contain Christian references, which he called a “logical function of the nation’s demographics.”

During a deposition, Johnson peppered one of the plaintiffs about what type of prayer would be acceptable in county meetings. “So if someone might be offended by virtually any prayer, should we just get rid of prayer entirely?” he asked.

An appeals court ruled against Johnson’s arguments in 2011, though the Supreme Court later ruled in favor of allowing such prayers in a separate case.

“I think he is a true believer and I think he wants to blend religion and government,” Parker said of Johnson.

Homosexuality was a frequent topic for Johnson, which he has called “inherently unnatural” and a “dangerous lifestyle.” In addition to suggesting he hopes the Supreme Court will reverse its decision allowing same-sex marriage, he also wrote in support of Texas’ anti-sodomy laws, which said gay men caught having sex could be fined.

“It recognized a fundamental right, a constitutional right to, to sodomy, which had never been recognized before,” Johnson said at a forum in 2005 on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Lawrence v. Texas — which struck down the ban on gay sex in that state.

Johnson supported an Arkansas law against same-sex couples adopting children, citing it as “good public policy” in 2008. In 2013, he opposed President Barack Obama’s appointment of an “openly homosexual” ambassador, Wally Brewster, to the Dominican Republic, calling it a provocative move against the Catholic country.

Move to government
In 2015, transitioning from his role at ADF to a member of the Louisiana House of Representatives, Johnson sparked national controversy with the “Marriage and Conscience Act.” The bill aimed to protect individuals objecting to same-sex marriage on religious grounds but faced opposition from Johnson’s hometown editorial board, business leaders and even Republicans in the state legislature.

Critics argued it could enable discrimination against LGBTQ individuals by businesses. Following backlash, the bill never reached a vote. In response to the bill’s failure, then-Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, issued a similar executive order.

“Apparently, defending religious liberty makes one ‘anti-gay’ now,” Johnson wrote on Facebook amid debate on the bill.

Just two years later, Johnson moved from the state legislature to Congress where he’s maintained a 92% rating from the CPAC Center for Legislative Accountability – 11% higher than the average Republican in 2022.

In Congress, Johnson signed on to some of the toughest anti-abortion bills, such as a 2021 so-called “heartbeat bill,” which would essentially outlaw abortion after six weeks. He has repeatedly called states that allow abortion “pro-death” states.

“It is truly an American holocaust,” Johnson said in May 2022 on local DC radio. “The reality is that Planned Parenthood and all these big abortion (providers), they set up their clinics in inner cities. They regard these people as easy prey. I mean, it’s true.”

Johnson also supported plans to change Medicare and Social Security benefits while increasing the retirement age, emphasizing urgency in addressing escalating entitlement.

He has blamed booming entitlements costs in part on abortion.

“And you don’t have 40 or 50 million able-bodied workers in the economy,” Johnson said on a podcast he co-hosts with his wife. “That would be paying taxes into the system to be able to support their elderly, you know, neighbors and friends.”

On numerous occasions, Johnson also voiced approval for a Louisiana state trigger law – passed in 2006 – which banned abortion without exceptions for rape and incest the day Roe v. Wade was overturned.

“I’m grateful to be from Louisiana, one of the dozen states or so that has a trigger law that will automatically become an abortion free state, pro-life,” Johnson said in 2022.

In 2022, Johnson introduced a bill that some described as a national version of what critics call Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” bill. The bill never made it out of committee.

For Johnson and those who share his worldview, such policies have spiritual implications not only for individuals but the entire nation, said Philip Gorski, a professor and chair of the sociology department at Yale University who has studied Christian nationalism.

“There is much more at stake for Johnson and others who crome from that conservative Christian subculture,” he said. “There is this view the United States is a Christian nation which has entered into a sacred covenant with God that involves upholding certain standards of Christian morality, and when those standards are violated, when those precepts are broken, it threatens the entire country with divine wrath and all kinds of decline.”

Efforts to keep Trump in office
Following Trump’s 2020 reelection defeat, Johnson played a pivotal role in efforts to overturn the election – urging his colleagues to sign onto the Texas Attorney General’s longshot lawsuit aiming to throw out the results in key swing states.

“It was rejected by a bipartisan majority of the Supreme Court,” Eisen told CNN, but Johnson was willing to “perpetuate the loser as the winner and to twist the law and the facts to support that.”

Johnson also endorsed some fringe conspiracies, including the unsubstantiated belief that voting software machines were manipulated.

On January 6, 2021, Johnson voted to object the election results, later saying he was doing his “duty to uphold the Constitution.”

For Johnson, the vote to keep Trump in office reflected a striking evolution from his past critique of Trump in 2015, whom, as first reported by the New York Times, he openly labeled as “dangerous,” lacking “character,” and devoid of a “moral center.” It was the apex of the transactional relationship between the religious right and former TV star.

During a church service in 2022, reflecting on the conclusion of Roe v. Wade, Johnson remarked that much of the credit belonged to Trump.

“There is a lot of credit to go around, but you have to acknowledge, Donald Trump for all of his, peccadillos, okay? Bless him,” Johnson said. “He was true to his word.”


https://www.yahoo.com/news/mike-johnson-said-wanted-revisit-090003622.html

 

So having the court revisit cases is a bad thing?

Would that include the court revisiting abortion? Affirmative action?

 

Who does not know the religious zealots and conservative activists on Supreme Court have already revisited abortion, affirmative action, and voting rights and threw out decades of precedence while at the same time clearing the way for Sharia Law For Christians enforced by the American Taliban rejecting the separation of church and state?



And now the Crazy Caucus appears to be in charge again or Johnson is on his way out.




House Speaker Mike Johnson's honeymoon period is over. Congress is still bracing for fights.
Ken Tran, USA TODAY
Mon, December 4, 2023 at 3:17 AM MST·5 min read
1.8k

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WASHINGTON — Some of the House's most conservative lawmakers are warning that newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.,'s grace period is over.

As Congress braces for a battle to avoid a government shutdown and approve crucial legislation, such as an annual defense policy bill, Johnson’s initial weeks in office, which some members have likened to a honeymoon, are coming to a close.

Johnson’s relationship with the conference’s hard-right wing is now “like any marriage or any relationship,” Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tenn., a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus, told USA TODAY.

“You have to build trust. You have to have expectations set and expectations met. And that’s now the phase we’re going into with the new speaker,” Ogles said, noting Johnson is “a friend” but that there are “high expectations” for him.

Some conservative hardliners, such as Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, agreed that Johnson's entering a new phase as a leader. But the Texas lawmaker still hoped Johnson could be given more grace, calling the House “a mess” and lamenting that there are “Republicans that won’t negotiate.”

Johnson’s election as speaker was widely celebrated among the House’s right flank for the previously little-known Louisiana Republican’s more conservative credentials when compared to his predecessor, former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

But Johnson’s new role in Congress as one of the four party leaders, referred to as the four corners, along with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.; Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has required him to represent all House Republicans, not just the conservative ones. That applies to delicate negotiations, such as efforts to avoid a partial government shutdown that could begin in January.

“He’s been more busy negotiating four corner deals than talking with his conference,” Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, another member of the Freedom Caucus, said, deriding such talks as “swamp negotiated.”

A spokesperson for Johnson told USA TODAY that "Speaker Johnson is as committed to enacting conservative reforms as the day he was unanimously elected."

Johnson, the spokesperson said, is focused on addressing the migrant crisis at the southern border, cutting back on federal spending and proceeding with House Republicans' ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.


Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., leaves a caucus meeting ahead of a vote to expel Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y., from the House of Representatives on December 01, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Fragile negotiations
Regardless of conservative hesitation to negotiate with Democrats, chair of the Freedom Caucus, Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., has signaled conservatives are willing to accept a spending agreement larger than some of their original demands. Those included deep cuts to the government.

Some Republicans have for months pressed for funding levels below what between Biden and McCarthy originally agreed on in the summer’s debt ceiling deal to avert a default. That deal included a spending cap of $1.59 trillion for the next fiscal year, but conservatives have been demanding a lower topline of $1.47 trillion.

Last week, however, the Freedom Caucus appeared to back down.

“$1.59 is too expensive for many of us but we realize that $1.47 is not gonna happen,” Perry said at a news conference. “It is too much, but that has to be the limit.”

Their concession is a small victory for Johnson, considering McCarthy was ousted by conservatives in part because of their demands for significant spending cuts. The Republican rebels who voted to remove McCarthy also balked at his negotiations with Democrats, the very step Johnson may need to take to keep the government's doors open next year.

Parts of the government are currently funded up until Jan. 19, while the remaining functions are funded up until Feb. 2.

'He’s got a tough situation'
Nevertheless, most House Republicans have acknowledged Johnson’s still relatively new position as speaker, considered one of the toughest jobs in Washington, is only made more difficult due to his circumstances.

“Speaker Johnson has been thrown into one of the toughest jobs in the world – in one of the most toxic environments our country has faced in modern history,” Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., told USA TODAY in a statement, adding that he has “gone about his work with positivity, integrity, and commitment to the future of America.”

For Johnson’s part, the recently installed speaker has been pressing the Senate to pass as much of House Republicans’ sweeping border plan – referred to as H.R. 2 – in conjunction with continued U.S. assistance to Ukraine. Congress has been working on passing a wide-ranging foreign aid package with border policy tacked on for weeks as Ukraine's war with Russia continues and Israel's war rages on with Hamas.

Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., one of the handful of GOP members who voted to oust McCarthy, dismissed the notion Johnson had a grace period in the first place and said he was evaluating his job performance day by day.

“I don’t think there was any such thing (as a grace period). I think you bring people in and see if they can do the job they were brought in to do,” Rosendale said.

Another conservative, Rep. Warren Davidson, R-Ohio, acknowledged that Johnson is in a “tough situation” but said conservative grievances against him are nothing “personal.”

“He’s got a tough situation. None of it’s personal, we’re just trying to make sure we deliver on the promises we made to the American people,” Davidson. “I’m surrendering with nobody."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/house-speaker-mike-johnsons-honeymoon-101706411.html

 

Mike Johnson might have ethics problems with the Bar Association: Liz Cheney

Sarah K. Burris
December 4, 2023 9:51PM ET



(Photo by Anna Rose Layden/Getty Images)


Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) writes in her book that the new Republican House Speaker, Rep. "MAGA" Mike Johnson (R-LA) may face some ethical issues due to his court efforts helping Donald Trump in 2020.

Speaking to MSNBC's Rachel Maddow on Monday, Cheney revealed some of the bombshells in her book, which will be released Tuesday.

Maddow read: "Page 32 of her book: Liz Cheney describes communications with Republican staffers on Capitol Hill about the court filing that Mike Johnson, in fact, led as part of Trump's election challenge."

"It seemed to me that making such assertions to a court — with no personal knowledge or basis in fact — would present ethics questions for anyone who is a member of the Bar."

Maddow pointed out that several of Trump's lawyers have faced professional punishment in a court of law for lies that they told on Trump's behalf.

As Cheney discussed with a counsel in Kevin McCarthy's (R-CA) office, Johnson "knew better."

Later in the interview, Cheney told Maddow that it's "terrifying" that Johnson will be Speaker after the 2024 election and there is a risk he could step in to overthrow it.

She explained that they were once close friends and had offices next to each other.

"I believed Mike to be a man of principle. What I learned is that he was willing to do things that he knew were wrong in order to placate Donald Trump," said Cheney.

Raw Story has full coverage of Cheney's book here.

See the clip of Cheney in the link below:




https://www.rawstory.com/mike-johnson-ethics-bar-association/

 

Side note: Patrick McHenry is also retiring which is another surprise.


'Brothers on the path': Notorious extremist sheds light on ties to Mike Johnson

Travis Gettys
December 5, 2023 10:00AM ET



New House Speaker Mike Johnson will have to try and reach a new agreement in early 2024 (Stefani Reynolds)


House Speaker Mike Johnson's legal work for conservative Christian causes has become well known since he emerged from the back bench to claim the gavel, but new reporting shows that his work as a lawyer sometimes linked him up to some unsavory clients.

The Louisiana Republican represented clients, often for free, affiliated with some of the most extreme anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ groups in the country, including one who was present for the Jan. 6 insurrection and now leads a militant organization tied to the murder of a Kansas abortion provider, reported The Daily Beast.

"The Daily Beast’s review turned up one former Johnson client who said the government 'should be a terror' to abortion providers and the LGBTQ community, another who opposed the condemnation of domestic terrorist attacks on abortion clinics, and another client who went on to record himself endorsing the hanging of government officials while in the thick of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol," the website reported.

"That former client now leads a militant organization tied to one of the darkest chapters in the anti-abortion movement: the 2009 murder of a Kansas abortion doctor," the report added. "And that plaintiff’s father also turned to Johnson when he wanted to secure a permit in 2003 for an anti-LGBTQ protest — a protest that ended in the attempted stabbing of a gay man."

That client, anti-gay activist and former preacher Grant Storms, organized that event 20 years ago in New Orleans to protest the city's Labor Day Bacchanal, which is known as the "gay Mardi Gras," and that drew a man armed with a steak knife who specifically "wanted to kill a gay man," and the former radical preacher expressed some measure of regret in a new interview.

“When everything was at the height — everything always on the news and everyone always talking about it — well in the midst of our protest, a gay person got stabbed,” Storms said. “Every person who’s a public figure has to be careful with their rhetoric, and as you get older you have to be more and more careful."

Storms made national news again later that year by appearing to endorse the mass murder of gay people at a religious fundamentalist conference in Wisconsin, but Johnson continued to represent him in a case where he sued Jefferson Parish, Louisiana.

“As a practicing attorney for over 20 years, Johnson defended the First Amendment rights of countless clients," said a spokesperson for Johnson. "As the Daily Beast surely knows, an attorney representing a client in a first amendment dispute does not equate to an endorsement of everything that client has ever said or done prior to or after a case."

But Storms, who confessed in 2012 to masturbating in his van by a playground in Metairie, Louisiana, said he felt a kinship with Johnson, who did most of his legal work for free, although he said they lost touch around the time of Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

“We were brothers on the path,” Storms said. “He always had our back.”



https://www.rawstory.com/mike-johnson-legal-work/

 

They've stooped to using the term "conservative christian" in the same way they use "white supremacist".

Still no indication how much lower they'll go in their quest for domination.

 

Let's take a look at just how stupid, ignorant, and corrupt Mike Johnson realty is. Here's what he said in one of his first interviews.

In one of his first interviews as Speaker, Johnson called the GOP the “rule of law team” and said impeachment should not be “wielded lightly.”


https://thehill.com/homenews/house/4292838-mike-johnson-biden-bribery-impeachment/



And now let's look at what Johnson just did. He claimed he was releasing the J6 videos for transparency so the American people can make up their own minds. But now says they have to blur the faces of the criminals in the capitol so they don't get indicted by DOJ. Making him a co-conspirator with them. That makes them rule of criminals team.


But lets go one step further into Johnson's corruption. Johnson has no legal right whatsoever to blur the faces in those videos because they do not belong to him or the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans. Those videos belong to us the American people. We are the ones who bought and paid for them. So Johnson is not only destroying the videos that belong to the American people he is also even making the taxpayers pay for his corruption.



That is how corrupt Johnson and the treasonous conservative/America Hating/Republicans are with their phony political stunt.

 

The despicables really don't want those videos released.

Wonder what they're so afraid of?

 

Kevin McCarthy to resign from Congress after being ousted as House speaker
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., says he's stepping down but will continue to recruit Republicans to run for office

 

Good riddance

 

'Tell you a secret': Speaker compares himself to Moses at event he thought was media free

M.L. Nestel
December 6, 2023 5:46PM ET



U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson gives a brief statement to reporters about the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, at the U.S. Capitol Oct. 26, 2023, in Washington, D.C.. - Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America/TNS


Mike Johnson's calling to serve as House Speaker reportedly came from the heavens.

Appearing as the keynote speaker during Tuesday night's award fete for the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (NACL) at the Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C., the newly appointed speaker from Louisiana opened up about his direct channel to God and how he was directed to become the next speaker after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was unceremoniously sacked.

“Look, I’m a Southern Baptist, I don’t wanna get too spooky on you,” he told attendees who apparently chuckled, according to Rolling Stone. “But, you know, the Lord speaks to your heart.”

Johnson explained how he was readying to prepare for his "Red Sea moment".

Apparently he assumed that he was talking in an intimate, media-free setting at the NACL, an organization said to be aiming to push for right-wing fundamentalism to be adopted into law.

As Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson points out, he may have been oblivious that his speech was being recorded and streamed on the NACL Facebook page.

ALSO READ: A neuroscientist explains how Donald Trump exploits the minds of conspiracy theorists

Johnson intimated: “I’ll tell you a secret, since media is not here.”

He added: “Thank you for not allowing the media in,” and said, according to the outlet, that reporters have been quoting him “out of context” with “great joy for the last few weeks.”

Johnson recounted many nights when he was stirred awake.

“The Lord began to wake me up, through this three-week process, in the middle of night to speak to me,” he said. “Now at the time I assumed the Lord is going to choose a new Moses.”

Given that the position is a few heartbeats from the presidency, Johnson determined, according to Rolling Stone, that he wasn't going to be Moses in this modern-day biblical battle — but his brother.

"You’re gonna allow me to be Aaron to Moses,” he added.

Yet when McCarthy lost his grip on the speaker gavel, there were many GOP lawmakers who tossed their names to take over the House.

So as the boldfaced names like Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) among the more than a dozen hopefuls tried to win the gig, Johnson's waited.

“Ultimately 13 people ran for the post," he said, according to Rolling Stone. "And the Lord kept telling me to, ‘Wait, wait, wait.'"

And so he obliged, and remembered his patience, he said.

"I waited," he said. "And then at the end … the Lord said, ‘Now step forward," Johnson recalled of this eureka moment.

Johnson was voted in as House Speaker on Oct. 24.

When he took the podium to accept the speaker role, Johnson detailed how close his belief structure is linked to the Lord.

"I believe that scripture, the Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority," he said. "He raised up each of you, all of us, and I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time. This is my belief."

https://www.rawstory.com/mike-johnson-2666465677/

 

'You are delusional': Conservatives bury Speaker Mike Johnson with attacks and corrections

David McAfee
December 8, 2023 4:54PM ET



U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson gives a brief statement to reporters about the mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine, at the U.S. Capitol Oct. 26, 2023, in Washington, D.C.. - Drew Angerer/Getty Images North America/TNS


House Speaker Mike Johnson is getting a little taste of conservative hate after a recent post on his social media.

Johnson, who replaced Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was recently hit with a direct attack from fellow GOPer Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. She claimed that "no member" of the National Defense Authorization Act conference "had any influence on this process."

"It was done in secret meetings with no input from conferees," the lawmaker wrote.

Now, other conservatives are upset with the NDAA in terms of what Republicans were able to accomplish in the negotiations.

Johnson said that Republicans "fo2ught to secure crucial wins in this year’s NDAA, the annual federal law which sets our national defense policy."

Among other things, Johnson claimed that they fought to "[e]nhance our national defense by countering CCP aggression at home and abroad," to "provide for our troops with a historic pay raise," and to ban critical race theory and "drag shows."

The social media platform itself corrected Johnson, saying that the "final NDAA agreed upon by the House and Senate does not ban 'drag shows' or 'gender-affirming care.'"

Although one reporter called the community notes message "brutal," the commenters were even less polite in their wording.

One Trump supporter wrote, "Unacceptable. Not happy with you right now."


Another conservative account had this to say: "Liar. The House GOP hasn't had a single significant win on anything. This NDAA funds abortion, transsexual surgery, extends warrant-less FISA searches and funds Ukraine. You are delusional."

Another wrote, "You eviscerated The UAP Disclosure Act, and Made it EASIER for the FBI to abuse the unconstitutional FISA 702 process. Then you sent Zelensky another $175,000,000.00 You basically screwed us."

Other conservatives had complaints about Johnson completely unrelated to the funding bill.

"We didn’t ask for blurred video," one user wrote, in reference to Johnson's trickle release of edited video from the attempted insurrection. "Release the unedited J6 video."

https://www.rawstory.com/you-are-delusional-conservatives-bury-speaker-johnson-with-and-corrections/

 

Mike Johnson's own words come back to haunt him as he pushes Biden impeachment

Tom Boggioni
December 11, 2023 12:24PM ET



Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) talks to Speaker Pro Tempore Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) on October 25 before he was elected Speaker of the House. Win McNamee/Getty Images


House Speaker Mike Johnson's support for an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden by the GOP majority House of Representatives has drawn renewed scrutiny into how he felt about Donald Trump's two impeachments and his remarkable change of heart about the "damage" — his words — it would inflict on the country.

The Louisiana Republican, who rose from obscurity to become the top Republican in the House after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was dethroned by a far-right faction in his own caucus, was initially skeptical about a Biden impeachment back in November, reportedly agreeing with some colleagues "that Biden's poll numbers are already weak, so there's less of a need politically to impeach him."

Now, after giving a thumbs-up to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) to proceed, comments made by Johnson in 2019 about Trump's second impeachment have resurfaced.

RELATED: Mike Johnson forced to do 'song and dance' for GOP extremists to keep his job: analyst

As CNN's KFiles is reporting, Johnson told an interviewer, "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.”

In that same interview with KEEL 710 radio, he added, "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.”

The CNN report adds, "Now Johnson, as the speaker of the House, seems to have abandoned his previous concerns about impeachment, and — with Republicans in control of the House — has said he fully supports such an inquiry along party lines and so close to a presidential election."

A spokesperson for Johnson's office pushed back, stating, "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.”

You can read more here.



https://www.rawstory.com/mike-johnson-impeachment-2666540491/

 

More of Speaker Mike Johnson’s Extreme Anti-LGBTQ+ Past and Extremist Ties Is Exposed
Christopher Wiggins
Sun, December 10, 2023 at 10:29 AM MST·2 min read
584



Mike Johnson Extreme Anti LGBTQ Past


Speaker Mike Johnson has a previous clientele list made up of a range of homophobes and anti-abortion figures.

In a revealing investigation, The Daily Beast reported last week on the contentious legal past of Johnson, the ultra-conservative Louisiana Republican, uncovering his extensive work with clients known for their extreme anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ+ views. Johnson, who has publicly identified himself as a constitutional lawyer for conservative Christian causes, has represented individuals affiliated with some of the nation’s most radical groups, often providing his services free of charge.

One such client was recorded endorsing violence against the LGBTQ+ community and abortion providers, according to the outlet. Another, involved in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, led a militant organization tied to the 2009 murder of a Kansas abortion doctor. This background paints a complex picture of Johnson’s legal career and ideological leanings.



Johnson’s ties with the Alliance Defending Freedom, a group actively working to embed right-wing Christian beliefs into law and known for its global campaign against LGBTQ+ and abortion rights, played a significant role in his career trajectory. Johnson’s consistent representation of clients with anti-gay and anti-abortion stances, as highlighted in the report, raises questions about his current political views and alignments.

The Daily Beast report also delved into the specifics of Johnson’s involvement with anti-LGBTQ+ activism, notably through his representation of Grant E. Storms, a former radical Christian preacher and antigay activist. Storms, who was later convicted of indecent exposure, received legal assistance from Johnson for various issues, including securing permits for anti-LGBTQ+ protests. One such protest in 2003, aimed at the Southern Decadence festival in New Orleans, ended in violence, including an attempted stabbing of a gay man. This incident, along with Storms’ history of inflammatory anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, spotlights Johnson’s alignment with figures who have actively opposed LGBTQ+ rights and, in some cases, incited violence against the community.

Related: Speaker Mike Johnson’s Obsession With Gay Sex

His office provided a statement to the Daily Beast emphasizing the nature of the attorney-client relationship. The statement said that representing a client in a First Amendment dispute does not equal endorsement of everything the client has said or done. However, the report notes that Johnson has not publicly denounced the actions or words of these former clients despite their alignment with violent rhetoric.

In addition to representing clients with anti-LGBTQ+ stances, Johnson himself has made several controversial statements regarding the LGBTQ+ community over the past two decades.

Johnson’s history of disparaging remarks includes his characterization of homosexuality as “inherently unnatural” and a “dangerous lifestyle.” Furthermore, Johnson has been vocal in his opposition to marriage equality, once claiming that same-sex marriage legalization could lead to extreme scenarios, such as people marrying their pets.



https://www.yahoo.com/news/more-speaker-mike-johnson-extreme-172913122.html

 

More of american haters hate spew.

 

Still hate spew that american hater is pleased to spew.

 

So why did Johnson back Trump's attempt to overturn a free election?

Enlighten us with some trumprard facts in evidence.

 

The definition of insanity is silty camp follower.

 

Mike Johnson's stepmom calls out his 'extremist stance' on religion: 'It's crazy'

Travis Gettys
December 13, 2023 7:13AM ET



Speaker of the House Mike Johnson at the U.S. Capitol on Oct. 25, 2023, in Washington, D.C. Win McNamee/Getty Images


House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has described his firefighter father's survival in a 1984 explosion as "an actual miracle" that was pivotal in his own religious faith, but his stepmother is now calling out his inaction on a related issue that had become his late father's passion in life.

Patrick Johnson joined a local community environmental group in Shreveport, Louisiana, working to fight a federal government plan for an open-air burn of 15 million pounds of toxic munitions, which would have sent massive amounts of known carcinogens into the open air, but his son did nothing to help as he entered the state legislature, reported The Guardian.

“His father and I went to him and said: ‘Mike you need to get involved in this, this is really important, your family really lives at Ground Zero,’” said Janis Gabriel, who was married to Johnson's father. “We basically begged him to say something, to someone, somewhere.”

Gabriel, who met Patrick Johnson in 2013 when he was a student at her Daoist center to practice tai chi and qigong martial arts, said a tense exchange followed as they pleaded with the newly elected state legislator for help.

“He just wasn’t interested,” Gabriel said. “He had other things to do. He was never interested in environmental things. It just blew my mind that he wouldn’t give five minutes of his time to the effort. He basically shut us down.”

The elder Johnson had survived an industrial explosion that killed a fellow firefighter when his son was 12, and the event became pivotal in both men's lives, but Gabriel says the congressman's religious faith peeled him away from the environmental concerns that his father was passionate about before his death from cancer in 2016.

“It speaks to those religious beliefs,” Gabriel said. “‘Don’t take care of the environment because we have a finite amount of time here and God will take care of you.’ It’s crazy.”

A spokeswoman for Johnson disputed Gabriel's characterization of the exchange but declined to elaborate, but a close friend of his father said he never accepted invitations to any of the citizen meetings they organized as local campaigning picked up against the burns at nearby Camp Minden.

“He stayed as far away from it as possible,” said Ron Hagar, a friend of the elder Johnson and chairman of the Citizens Advisory Group. “He had no sense of responsibility to stand up for the people he’s representing.”

The 72-year-old Gabriel moved out of state after her husband died but exchanged occasional messages and cards with his son, but she said the elder Johnson was “acutely aware of the environment” and “certainly didn’t agree” with Mike Johnson’s “extremist stance” on Christianity, but he accepted it.

She also noted that they disagreed over support for Donald Trump, who was first elected the same year Patrick Johnson died.



https://www.rawstory.com/mike-johnson-religion/

 

'Hypocrisy on steroids': Dem strategist hits Mike Johnson with brutal put-down

Adam Nichols
December 16, 2023 10:40AM ET






House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) was torn apart in a blistering attack by fellow Louisianan and Democratic strategist James Carville.

The no-holds-barred attack zeroed in on Johnson’s right-wing Christian nationalism — which Carville said showed a level of “breathtaking hypocrisy.”

“Johnson has no skill, no background, no majority to speak of,” Carville, the Democratic consultant credited with leading Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign, told The Guardian in an article published Saturday.

“What Johnson does represent is a level of breathtaking hypocrisy. His anti-homosexuality and young earthism are hypocrisy on steroids.”

Johnson is a fundamentalist Christian who subscribes to “young earthism” — the creationist view that the earth is 6,000 years old — and right-wing religious opinions.

He won the speakership last month after rounds of Republican infighting sank the hopes of other House GOPers, including Jim Jordan (OH).

Carville, a practicing Catholic, has challenged the speaker to debate him at Louisiana Christian University, a Southern Baptist school in their state. He says Christian nationalism goes against the core of the faith.

ALSO READ: Dear GOP: America is not going to forget — and many Americans will never forgive

"The greatest distinction in the world is between patriotism, which is positive – a piece of ground as an idea – and nationalism, which is tribal, exclusionary and, yeah, poisonous," he said.

He added, “The debate I want begins: ‘Resolved, Christian nationalism is a greater threat to America than al-Qaida,’” he said. “I want students to see real debate and make up their own minds about what kind of America we want."

“The essence of Trumpism is that politics has run over you,” Carville added. “I understand why people feel that – the idea of loss, what people once had. In the church, we’re seeing a real defense of power in reaction to the hypocrisy and rottenness that’s been exposed. So the right wing doubles down.”

https://www.rawstory.com/mike-johnson-2666611130/