Mike Johnson Appointed as New House Speaker

The new Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, is an American politician selected as the speaker on October 25th, 2023. Johnson is a member of the Republican Party and has represented Louisiana’s 4th congressional district since 2017. 

Johnson, in his second term as vice chair of the House Republican Conference, won the Speaker’s gavel in a 220-209 vote over Hakeem Jeffries. 

Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy was the first sitting House Speaker in U.S. history to be ousted, even by member of his own party, with a vote of 216-210. Johnson’s positions aligned more with traditional conservative values, especially social issues, whereas McCarthy represents a more diverse group and adopts slightly more centrist positions on some issues. 

The vote for the Speaker was split 220-209 along party lines, voting in Johnson instead of the Democrat-supported minority leader Jeffries. Johnson was the former chair of the Republican Study Committee, the largest ideological faction of Republicans. The members of this committee typically support budget cuts and restriction to abortion, among other things.  

In 2022, Johnson said reproductive freedom in the US was “truly an American holocaust.” He also supported the 2021 “heartbeat bill,” which effectively banned abortion after six weeks, when many people didn’t even know when they were pregnant. 

At the moment, Johnson is currently the co-sponsor for at least three bills that would ban abortion nationwide. In addition to opposing more funding for Ukraine, he introduced three different pieces of legislation to tighten the asylum system, including raising the standard for undocumented immigrants.  

Johnson, an ally of Trump, led the amicus brief signed by more than 100 House Republicans to support a Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the 2020 election results in four swing states that Biden won.

Furthermore, Johnson has pushed for the impeachment of President Biden. Johnson claims that Biden’s family benefited financially from connections with other countries while he was vice president. 

Johnson notes that bribery is listed as a potential cause of impeachment in the Constitution and that he will “follow the truth whoever it leads.” He demands that Biden clarify why he got a $200,000 check the same day James Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, received an identical transfer from a U.S. hospital company.

Johnson has been pushing for an investigation since 2019. He states, “If President Trump’s requested information investigation was justified, then no impeachment charge against him is justified. It can’t be an abuse of power by President Trump to inquire about an abuse of power that’s so painfully obvious by Vice President Biden.” 

Democrats have defended President Biden by calling the claims “jokes” or “absurdity,” but this inquiry could affect Biden’s re-election in 2024. 

Johnson took shots at Democrats, saying, “I know people are getting anxious and they’re getting restless, and they just want someone to be impeached, but we don’t do that like the other team.” 

Despite being House Speaker for less than a month, Johnson is certain to make an impact, and we’ll be hearing a lot about him.