From Vanity Fair: Mike Johnson Becomes Speaker of the House After Alleged Election Interference with Donald Trump

Written by Abigail Tracy

On Wednesday, just before 2 p.m., Mike Johnson, a representative from Louisiana, was elected as the Speaker of the House of Representatives with a vote of 220 to 209. This brought an end to the intraparty dysfunction and legislative stagnation which the GOP caucus experienced once Kevin McCarthy lost the gavel three weeks earlier.

During his inaugural address on the House floor, Johnson expressed his intention to find common ground with Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, despite their contrasting viewpoints. He laid down a series of priorities to be executed as the new Speaker of the House, some of which received applause and even occasional standing ovation from the Democrats present. "Let the world's foes to freedom hear us loud and clear: the People's House is back," Johnson declared.

However, amidst these inspiring words and dubious displays of cross-party cooperation, the intricacies of Johnson's upcoming task were clearly highlighted. Complaints were heard from some Democrats as soon as Johnson took the Speaker's podium, and before this, Marjorie Taylor Greene was notably observed shouting down Jeffries's comment that Joe Biden had won the presidential election. Although there was a distinct sense of relief in the House chamber following the vote, Johnson still faces the hurdle of handling a slight majority and a disorderly caucus.

During a Wednesday afternoon inquiry about the mood among his GOP colleagues, Byron Donalds, whom Johnson outrivaled for the Speaker nomination, was guardedly hopeful. "We're all very optimistic, however, we're also realistic," he told Vanity Fair. "We're aware that the upcoming weeks will be challenging since there's a significant amount of unattended work, and we have to tackle it." When pressed on the infighting within the party that became public in recent weeks, Donalds diplomatically avoided the issue, stating, “I don’t want to be overly optimistic about it.”

After McCarthy's unprecedented dismissal, Johnson was not initially seen as his probable successor. His rise to power followed the unsuccessful Speaker candidacies of three more experienced Republicans with higher profiles. The GOP caucus's severe division ultimately took its toll on these predicted successors. For some, House majority leader Steve Scalise was thought to be too established, a creature of the swamp. To some moderate members, Freedom Caucus cofounder Jim Jordan was overly provocative. For others, Republican whip Tom Emmer was too much of a "RINO".

Johnson emerged from this leadership turmoil. He’s perceived as something of a GOP Goldilocks: possessing the right-wing credentials without the excessive zeal. Unlike Emmer, he avoided opposition from Donald Trump, which could be because Johnson was involved in Trump's campaign to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome. As a constitutional lawyer, Johnson championed the amicus brief endorsed by over 100 House Republicans in support of overturning the election results in four swing states. He was also among the 138 House members, following the January 6 attack, who attempted to nullify Joe Biden’s conclusive victory.

"Johnson was deeply committed to keeping Trump in power immediately following the 2020 election," reported Robert Costa, a CBS News correspondent and coauthor of the 2021 book Peril. "He collaborated in a coordinated manner with allied Trump groups and conservative leaders to ensure their collective efforts towards assisting Trump."

Written by Hillary Busis, Jack McCordick, and Kase Wickman

After Johnson was declared Speaker of the House on Tuesday night, ABC News' Rachel Scott questioned him about his attempts to overturn the election results. "Next question," was all Johnson said in response, as other Republicans joined in booing and Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina yelled, "Shut up! Shut up!"

Nonetheless, Democrats are not letting this go. California representative Pete Aguilar, in his nomination of the Democrats’ leader, Hakeem Jeffries, underscored Johnson's history of election denial. "Democrats are of the opinion that members of this body, who voted against the 2020 election results, have given up their right to lead this chamber," he stated. All 209 Democrats present voted for Jeffries.

When it comes to social issues, Johnson is hard to the right. He opposed legalizing same-sex marriage—unlike Emmer, who faced some opposition in his Speaker bid for voting in favor of such legislation. He introduced a bill last year “that prohibited the use of federal funds for providing sex education to children under 10 that included any LGBTQ topics,” which critics likened to Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, according to The New York Times.

And on abortion, Johnson is a vocal opponent. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Johnson wrote on what was then known as Twitter that “Louisiana is now a proudly pro-life state—we will get the number of abortions to ZERO!! EVERYONE deserves a birthday. Thanks be to God.” And he has argued that Roe provided “constitutional cover to the elective killing of unborn children in America,” and seemingly blamed the need to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid on losing “able-bodied workers in the economy” to abortions.

“Mike Johnson is a carbon-copy of the MAGA extremism that is deeply unpopular with Americans across the country,” Sarafina Chitika, a spokesperson for the Democratic National Committee, said in a statement ahead of Wednesday’s Speaker vote.

Johnson’s record will undoubtedly draw intense scrutiny in the days and weeks to come. But if the fight for the gavel serves as anything, it is a portent of the challenges he will face as the leader of a caucus that, for three weeks, has demonstrated an inability to govern. On Tuesday night, after he became Speaker designee, Johnson insisted, “This House Republican majority is united.” But picking a leader is arguably the least nuanced issue a majority has to tackle. Johnson, in other words, just cleared the lowest hurdle he will be presented with now that he is Speaker.

The end of the protracted Speakership fight was roundly applauded by Republicans. “Mike has less than four enemies. So Mike is—in addition to being abundantly qualified—he just is one of those nice people that builds coalitions and doesn’t make people unnecessarily angry,” Ken Buck, who was a holdout in previous Speaker votes this month, told reporters Wednesday ahead of the vote.

And Buck, who opposed Jordan for Speaker because the Ohio lawmaker still has not recognized the validity of Biden’s 2020 win, drew a contrast with Johnson. “I’ve served on the Judiciary [Committee] with Mike Johnson…. I’ve observed Mike in all kinds of situations. I knew that he voted to decertify [the election] and he wrote the brief, but I also know that from the January 6 report and other things, he was not intimately involved in the planning or operation of January 6.” Buck voted for Johnson.

Johnson, who was elected to Congress in 2016, assumes the gavel with limited experience in leadership, as Senator Mitt Romney noted before the vote. “Apparently experience isn’t necessary for the Speaker job,” he said.

As the vice chair of the House Republican Conference, Johnson did vote in favor of the debt-ceiling deal McCarthy struck with the Biden White House—casting it as the only choice. But he voted against the continuing resolution that cost the Californian his job. Notably, Johnson also voted against continued funding for Ukraine. And he has previously pushed for steep cuts to entitlement programs, implying in an interview that the Republican Party needed to “get back to it as the number one priority.”

Speaking from the Capitol steps after the vote, Johnson claimed that the past three weeks have put the Republican caucus in a stronger position. “Perseverance produces character and character produces hope,” he said. “We’ve gone through a little bit of suffering.” However, Democrat Steny Hoyer, having wrangled his own caucus as Nancy Pelosi’s former deputy, had his doubts: “I think they’re a deeply divided conference.”