Trump-backed Mike Johnson elected House speaker after 22 days - live
New Speaker Mike Johnson is a hard-right Christian conservative opposed to LGBT+ and reproductive rights
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Your support makes all the difference.House Republicans overwhelmingly elected Rep Mike Johnson (R-LA) to be the next speaker of the House after 22 days where the House of Representatives had no leader amid turmoil across the globe and the need to pass spending bills next month.
Mr Johnson, the former deputy whip for House Republicans, won 220 votes on the floor after House Republicans coalesced around him on Tuesday evening. His ascent came after House Majority Whip Tom Emmer dropped out a mere four hours after the House Republican conference nominated him to be speaker.
Republicans from all factions of the conference cheered Mr Johnson and whistled on the floor, chanting his name.
After conservatives, led by former president Donald Trump, revolted against Mr Emmer, he removed himself from the running and after another contest, Mr Johnson emerged victorious.
A former attorney for the Alliance Defending Freedom, Mr Johnson is considered an arch-social conservative staunchly opposed to abortion. Earlier this year, he introduced legislation that would have made it illegal to transport a person under the age of 18 across state lines to obtain an abortion without parental notification.
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‘I wouldn’t be shocked if this ended in an actual fistfight between Banks and Emmer'
Rep Jim Banks said that his opposition to Rep Tom Emmer as speaker is “all about policy. there are big policy differences. So I’m a conservative, he’s not, I’m not going to vote to put someone who’s not a conservative in the Speaker’s chair”, according to the Washington Examiner.
A Republican aide told the paper: “I wouldn’t be shocked if this ended in an actual fistfight between Banks and Emmer. Put my money on the hockey dad.”
‘He was a RINO’: Trump comes out swinging against Emmer
Former President Donald Trump slammed Rep Tom Emmer, saying “He was not a supporter. I mean, he was a RINO”.
‘I only had 8 against me,’ McCarthy says after 26 vote no in Emmer roll call
‘They should just pick a Speaker and move on,’ Christie says
Chris Christie berated members of his own party for their failure to elect a Speaker of the House on Monday as the GOP enters its fourth week of chaos in the lower chamber.
“We’ve gone through two nominees of the party since Kevin McCarthy. It’s an embarrassment ... to the country and the party,” said Mr Christie.
“We need a House of Representatives that functions,” he added. “They should just pick a Speaker and move on.”
He did not spare Democrats from criticism, noting that the chamber’s minority had refused to vote for Mr McCarthy and save him from an intra-party rebellion of his own creation. Democrats, he argued, “contributed to the problem” and argued that they along with eight Republicans had fired Mr McCarthy “without cause”.
‘The House Republican chaos, disfunction and extremism has reached a new level,’ Jeffries says
Who is Tom Emmer?
Thomas “Tom” Emmer has proven himself to be a traditional and reliable conservative, chairing the National Republican Congressional Committee for four years and being elected the House majority whip in 2022.
The 62-year-old was first elected to the House of Representatives in 2015 to represent Minnesota’s 6th District. He serves on the Committee on Financial Services as well as two subcommittees, one on Capital Markets and the other on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion.
Prior to holding national office, Mr Emmer served in Minnesota’s State House of Representatives for six years during which he made an unsuccessful bid for governor – losing by less than 10,000 votes.
He’s been married to his wife Jacqueline for 37 years and the couple have seven children.
Mr Emmer is one of the lesser-known members of his caucus because he’s relatively quiet compared to some of his far-right colleagues.
Notably, while many Republicans were predicting a “red wave” during the last US midterm elections, Mr Emmer was sounding a note of caution telling colleagues, “Don’t be measuring the drapes.”
But despite appearing more laid back, Mr Emmer’s legislative track record is deeply loyal to his party on nearly all fronts.
Mr Emmer has backed legislation that supports parental rights, loosens environmental protections (he has doubted scientific evidence of the climate crisis), is anti-abortion and eases firearm restrictions. He also supported bringing articles of impeachment against President Joe Biden.
Though Mr Emmer voted to certify the 2020 results after Mr Trump’s false claims that the election had been stolen, he has also defended former president Donald Trump when he faced federal indictment over the Jan 6 riots at the US Capitol.
Wrestling abuse dogged Jim Jordan’s House speaker run. A new film could be a ‘game changer’
Amajor documentary on the Ohio State University (OSU) sexual abuse scandal that is expected to renew attention on then-OSU coach and now Republican Congressman Jim Jordan is currently in the middle of production.
The untitled Max (HBO) film, produced by George Clooney and directed by Academy Award-winner Eva Orner, will tell the story of decades of abuse by former OSU sports doctor Richard Strauss through the eyes of victims “including All American wrestlers and football players, many of whom have not spoken out until now”, the streaming site said in a statement last year.
A staffer at Clooney’s production house Smokehouse Pictures told The Independent they were “still thick in production on it”.
Attention on the scandal intensified in recent weeks as Jordan began his ill-fated run for House Speaker, only to be cast aside by the same chaotic forces he helped to foster within the party. Mr Jordan has denied any knowledge of the abuse by Strauss, despite numerous witnesses stating they discussed it with him directly.
Several victims have since gone on record to say that Mr Jordan’s alleged participation in the culture of silence that enabled Strauss’ abuse to go unpunished should have disqualified him from the speakership.
GOP Majority Whip Tom Emmer drops speaker bid after four hours
Majority Whip Tom Emmer’s speaker bid lasted only four hours before he dropped out in the face of steadfast opposition from a number of right-wing members of the House Republican conference.
Mr Emmer won the nomination on Tuesday for speaker after five rounds of internal voting, but it quickly became clear that he wouldn’t reach the 217 votes needed on the floor of the House.
Mr Emmer and Rep Mike Johnson were the final two in the internal ballot after Rep Kevin Hern was booted in the fourth round and Rep Byron Donalds dropped out voluntarily.
Trump says Emmer ‘never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement'
Shortly after Mr Emmer received the backing of fellow Republican congressmen, former President Donald Trump – who had spent the day sitting in a New York courtroom where he is accused of fraud – launched a furious attack on him.
Mr Trump wrote on his social media platform: “I have many wonderful friends wanting to be Speaker of the House, and some are truly great Warriors. RINO Tom Emmer, who I do not know well, is not one of them. He never respected the Power of a Trump Endorsement, or the breadth and scope of MAGA—MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
He added: “I believe he has now learned his lesson, because he is saying that he is Pro-Trump all the way, but who can ever be sure? Has he only changed because that’s what it takes to win? The Republican Party cannot take that chance, because that’s not where the America First Voters are. Voting for a Globalist RINO like Tom Emmer would be a tragic mistake!”
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