After a quite epic lesson in public humiliation as a result of his personal pressured errors, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) blamed “the body” of the U.S. Home as a substitute of the “leader” (himself) on Wednesday.
CNN’s Manu Raju reported, “Speaker Johnson non-committal on moving on Senate’s Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan package. Defends handling of agenda. Says process is “messy.”
Requested him about criticism in ranks. Mentioned: ‘I don’t assume this can be a reflection on the chief. It’s a mirrored image on the physique itself.’”
Information — Speaker Johnson non-committal on transferring on Senate’s Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan package deal. Defends dealing with of agenda. Says course of is “messy.”
Requested him about criticism in ranks. Mentioned: “I don’t think this is a reflection on the leader. It’s a reflection on the body itself.” pic.twitter.com/LK3pTUy655To get extra tales like this, subscribe to our e-newsletter The Day by day.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) February 7, 2024
Johnson is doing plenty of ducking and dodging in charge “divided government” and claims that is what democracy seems to be like. However in truth, Republicans tried to question DHS Secretary Mayorkas over the border, which they themselves have been refusing to fund as wanted since they got here into energy final yr.
On Tuesday, Johnson led the Home to a failed vote to impeach Mayorkas over points that he and his personal caucus are literally serving to to create.
The Republican Speaker didn’t convey that impeachment vote as a result of unhealthy counting. The final vote was 214-216, with four Republicans joining all 212 Democrats in voting no. Johnson is blaming one Democrat displaying up unexpectedly for the failure, however definitely this isn’t a transfer we witnessed below Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who knew tips on how to depend and the way and when to convey votes ahead.
Johnson led his caucus into killing the bipartisan border deal that was brimming with giveaways to Republicans despite the fact that they’ve a slim majority within the Home and Democrats lead the Senate and White Home, which is one other approach of claiming they obtained greater than they’d any proper to after which they walked away from the win as a result of Trump informed them to as a result of he’s planning on operating on the border and may’t afford to have it addressed previous to the election.
Republicans had insisted on tying support to Ukraine to the border package deal as a solution to pressure Democrats, who accurately see Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a menace to international democracy, into bargaining. So Republicans weaponized towards western democracy to get what they mentioned they wished on the border, since a lot of them should not inclined to assist Ukraine, discovering their celebration extra affiliated with Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
By strolling away from this bipartisan deal, they put U.S. nationwide safety in danger and imperiled support to Ukraine & Israel.
The Speaker (who compared himself to Moses at a Christian nationalist occasion, in case you have been questioning about his pondering course of) then tried to elevate a separate stand alone package deal to Israel, however this additionally failed with 166 Democrats and 14 Republicans voting towards it.
In spite of everything of those failures yesterday, the person who thinks God selected him to be Speaker fled the Capitol, avoiding reporters.
Right now, nevertheless, he stood there with a smirk on his face and blamed the whole physique of the U.S. Home, which is a not so refined dig at some in his personal caucus who didn’t play ball together with his shell video games, in addition to blaming the “process” of democracy.
Democracy as a course of was not a few slim majority in one half of 1 department of presidency hijacking the whole political course of to appease their criminally-indicted, adjudicated-rapist political candidate for the presidency.
Democracy is messy, however this isn’t what democracy seems to be like. We word that Speaker Johnson doesn’t take heed to anybody however the MAGA department and the Boss, Donald Trump, who himself faces accusations of inciting a terrorist assault on his personal nation and tried to steal the votes of nearly all of People in his tried self-coup. That’s not what democracy seems to be like.
Nothing speaks to Johnson’s sense of entitlement to dominant, ruling energy (which is the other of the democratic course of) than his perception that God selected him which is why he’s in energy (and thus, it’s inferred, shouldn’t be questioned, that is the divine proper argument that the U.S. rejected within the Revolutionary Battle), however…. God did NOT pick President Joe Biden. So, solely Johnson’s energy is respectable, in his thoughts.
This argument sums up the Republican strategy to “governing”: It’s their approach or no approach. Solely they’re entitled to set coverage, even when the American folks made their will recognized that they most popular Democrats to set these insurance policies. Republicans know they’d seemingly not even be accountable for the Home with out having corrupted the political processes via gerrymandering and voter suppression, but they act as in the event that they alone are entitled to set coverage calls for and impeach somebody from whom they’re withholding the funds to do his job as he must do it.
That is extra the outline of a poisonous work surroundings than the democratic course of.
Appeasing Donald-I-keep-classified-documents-in-the-bathroom-of-my-club-for-anyone-willing-to-pay-for-entry-Trump just isn’t what democracy seems to be like. Undermining western democracy by turning their backs on Ukraine just isn’t what democracy seems to be like. And intentionally tanking the perfect deal they’re ever prone to get on the border as a result of having a disaster on the border is healthier for his or her Boss politically just isn’t what democracy seems to be like.
Allow us to remind Republicans that Donald Trump just isn’t the president; he was not chosen; he was rejected by the voters. Taking orders from him is the other of honoring democracy.
If the border is a nationwide safety menace, as Trump and Republicans preserve saying it’s, then why did they stroll away? They are going to be pressured to reply this query on the marketing campaign path and there isn’t a respectable reply.
It’s not the U.S. Home physique’s fault that Johnson is a failure as a pacesetter. Nancy Pelosi led this exact same physique, and he or she held a masterclass on tips on how to lead. The one “body” answerable for this chaos is the Republican convention, who can’t keep on with any Speaker for too lengthy irrespective of how a lot that Speaker appeases Donald Trump and the MAGA wing. So actually, Johnson is blaming his personal celebration for this failure, however he lacks the braveness or even perhaps the data to say so.
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