The new Speaker ducks the tough question
Johnson hides behind the skirts of his booing colleagues
It was infuriating this week to watch new U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson duck an important question from the news media, while his Republican colleagues booed the reporter who asked the question.
The scene was moments after Republicans finally elected a new speaker following three weeks of what looked more like the Keystone Kops than the House of Representatives. Republicans invited the news media into the room where the vote took place, gathering around Johnson, wanting to show him off to the world.
ABC News congressional correspondent Rachel Scott started to ask Johnson, “You led the effort to overturn the 2020 election results, do you…” when she was cut off by House Republicans who started booing the question. Representative Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, the grandmotherly-looking type in the lower right of the picture above, shouted, “Shut up! Shut up!”
The new speaker just shook his head and closed his eyes, as if he could not believe a reporter would ask such an impertinent question at a joyous occasion like this. He said, in a dismissive tone of voice, “Next question.”
The next question, and every question from a journalist until Johnson answers it, should be “You led the effort to overturn the 2020 election results. Do you still believe the election was stolen?”
Johnson was indeed a key player in trying to overturn the election. He criticized mailed-in ballots during the pandemic. He endorsed allegations of voting machine irregularities, which have been completely disproven. He led efforts in the House on January 6th to not certify election results for Joe Biden. And he joined a weak lawsuit filed by the Texas Attorney General that the U.S. Supreme Court immediately dismissed. Johnson is not some bit player in the election drama from 2020.
So Rachel Scott’s question was completely legitimate, while Johnson hid behind the skirts of hundreds of his booing colleagues.
These kinds of scenes used to really frustrate me as a reporter covering politics. The politicians want the news media in the room but only if the media cooperate to tell the story that the politicians want communicated to the American people. They don’t want what they deem to be impertinent questions. Booing down a question and hollering “shut up” at a journalist is a gang mentality and every member of the GOP caucus should be embarrassed by their behavior.
The next night, Speaker Johnson did submit to a long sit-down interview. Surprise, surprise – he picked the sycophant Sean Hannity of Fox News. Hannity is no journalist, even though he hides behind the First Amendment all the time. Hannity once appeared on stage at a campaign event for Donald Trump, embracing Trump before an adoring crowd. Anybody who does that cannot call himself a journalist.
I watched the entire 42-minute interview. (The things I put myself through for you, dear reader.) Hannity never asked the election-denialism question! Hannity had plenty of time to ask about Hunter Biden and the Biden impeachment efforts and let Johnson fire away, accusing the Bidens of bribery. “We’re going to follow the truth where it leads. We’re going to engage in due process because we’re the rule of law party. I know people are getting anxious, they’re getting restless, and they just want somebody to be impeached. But we don’t do that like the other team. We have to base it on the evidence. The evidence is coming together. We’ll see where it leads.”
The next obvious question should have been, “You say Republicans are the rule of law party yet the leader of your party, Donald Trump, faces four criminal trials as well as many civil legal problems. Trump endorsed you for Speaker. How do you square that?”
But Hannity’s next question? “Let’s return to the budget.” Not one word about Trump’s legal problems or the role Johnson played in trying to overturn the 2020 election in Trump’s favor.
It makes me wonder if Johnson insisted before granting the interview that Hannity not ask him about election denialism and if Hannity and Fox News agreed to it. If so, it’s a shameful thing to do. No legitimate journalist should ever agree to off-limits questions.
We’ll see if Johnson submits himself to an interview with a real journalist anytime soon. If so, I hope the first question, second question and every question thereafter is about Johnson’s role in trying to subvert the will of American voters – until he finally answers it.
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If anyone ever doubted the MAGA Party's (no longer GOP) not-so-subtle push for Christian Nationalism, Mike Johnson is now their High Priest. The fact that his legislative compass is centuries-old scripture should scare the hell out of most modern, common sense Americans.
Thank you. The instant mocking of the reporter was sinister.