Representative Mike Johnson (51, photo), a pro-Trump member of the U.S. opposition Republican Party, was elected Speaker of the House of Representatives, the third-highest position in the U.S. hierarchy of power, on the 25th. On the 3rd, after hardliners in the Republican Party ousted former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy on the grounds that he was conciliatory with the ruling Democratic Party, the chairman vacuum that ensued was resolved after 22 days. However, there are concerns that the extreme confrontation in the U.S. political world will become more extreme with the birth of the hard-liner chairman who led former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the presidential election.
The House of Representatives voted to elect Johnson at the plenary session on this day and elected Rep. Johnson, who received the majority with the support of all 220 Republican lawmakers out of 429 registered lawmakers, as the new Speaker. He claimed in his inaugural address that “the House of the People is back.”
Chairman Johnson was born in 1972 in the conservative southern state of Louisiana and has been active there ever since. He has a legal background and has worked for evangelical Christian organizations. He is a four-term lawmaker who entered the House of Representatives in 2017. He is the shortest player since John Griffin Carlyle, who became chairman as a four-term congressman in 1883, exactly 140 years ago. This is also in contrast to former Speaker McCarthy, who was a nine-term Speaker of the House of Representatives starting in 2007.
The selection of Chairman Johnson, who had little experience in Washington politics and had never even served as chairman of a major standing committee in the House of Representatives, was largely due to the support of former President Trump and the party’s hard-line lawmakers’ Freedom Caucus.
New Chairman Johnson led former President Trump’s refusal to accept the 2020 presidential election and opposition to the certification of President Joe Biden’s victory. Accordingly, former President Trump publicly supported Chairman Johnson on the social media site ‘Truth Social’ a day ago when he was elected as the Republican candidate for Speaker of the House, saying, “I will go with Johnson, the winning candidate.” Immediately after his election that day, he praised him, saying, “He will be a great chairman.”
Representative Matt Gates, an ultra-hardliner who led the dismissal of former Speaker McCarthy, also welcomed him, saying, “MAGA (Make America Great Again) Johnson.” It is an abbreviation for former President Trump’s campaign slogan, ‘Make America Great Again,’ and refers to pro-Trump supporters. The New York Times commented, “Ideologically, he is the most conservative Speaker of the House of Representatives ever” and “will lead the rightward shift of the Republican Party.”
Immediately after his election, Chairman Johnson passed a resolution supporting Israel in the war between Israel and the Palestinian armed group Hamas. However, the prevailing view is that he will engage in a power struggle with the White House over the $105 billion (approximately 142 trillion won) simultaneous support bill for Israel and Ukraine requested by President Biden.
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Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.