House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) says he is “all in” for former President Donald Trump in his quest to reclaim the White House in 2024.
During a Nov. 14 appearance on CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the speaker revealed that he had already given President Trump his endorsement.
“I have endorsed him wholeheartedly,” Mr. Johnson said, correcting the notion that he had yet to do so.
“I was one of the closest allies that President Trump had in Congress. He had a phenomenal first term,” he continued. “Those first two years, as you all know, we brought about the greatest economic numbers in the history of the world, not just the country, because his policies worked. And I’m all in for President Trump.”
Mr. Johnson also said that he expected the former president to win not only the Republican Party’s nomination but also the general election, adding, “We have to make Biden a one-term president.”
Prior to his ascension to the speakership, Mr. Johnson was known throughout the House as a big supporter of President Trump.
After the 2020 election, he backed congressional efforts to investigate irregularities and allegations of voter fraud in key swing states like Pennsylvania and Georgia.
A constitutional law attorney, the congressman also served on both of the former president’s impeachment defense teams in the House, defending his innocence. And on CNBC, he did so again as hosts challenged his support for President Trump amid the criminal indictments he now faces in four different cases.
“Listen, I think this is motivated by political prosecutions, and we call it ‘lawfare.’ That’s what it is—it’s just another way to go after a candidate,” he said, adding that he thought the public could see that for themselves.
Dynamic Duo
Since his election as speaker on Oct. 25, Mr. Johnson has faced some criticism from Democrats for his openness about his Christian faith and how that influences his leadership.
Republicans, on the other hand, have praised him for the exact same reason.
“Mike Johnson is the real deal,” Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) recently told The Epoch Times. “I’m not claiming he’s perfect and I’m not claiming he’s a saint, but I mean he truly tries to live his faith. His ‘yes’ is yes and his ‘no’ is no. There are really no games with him, so at a time when politics is so volatile, he’s quite frankly a breath of fresh air in the House of Representatives.”
The speaker’s style and approach, Mr. Ogles noted, is very different from that of President Trump. Where the latter might be more “combative” in the face of criticism, Mr. Johnson, he said, tends to respond with “grace and self-deprecation.”
But according to Richard Manning, president of Americans for Limited Government and former Labor Department chief of staff, the dynamic of a Trump presidency and Johnson speakership might just be the perfect balance in tone to get things done in Washington.
“Donald Trump and Mike Johnson are the perfect complement to one another. Trump pushes against Washington D.C.’s establishment’s ‘Overton Window,’ and Speaker Johnson can normalize those discussions in the halls of Congress,” Mr. Manning told The Epoch Times.
The “Overton window” is a term often used to describe the range of political policies that the public deems acceptable at any given time.
Likewise, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said he believed such a combination would produce a “productive, positive” relationship between President Trump and Mr. Johnson, with the speaker’s “low-key, positive” approach tempering opposition to his conservative agenda.
“There will be times that they disagree and there will be times I am sure that Trump would like obedience. But Johnson is so much closer to Trump than [Senate Minority Leader Mitch] McConnell that I think Johnson will be the natural leader on the Hill.”
Mark Tapscott contributed to this report.
From The Epoch Times
