House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will leave Washington today, along with the rest of his House and Senate colleagues, without committing to observing regular order and certifying the result of the election if Vice President Kamala Harris were to win in a few short weeks.
Congress won’t be back in session until after the November 5 presidential election.
It’s one of two nausea-inducing actions taken by Johnson this week, as he’s worked the last several days to try to get his conference on the same page about a plan to avert a government shutdown when funding runs out at the end of the month. That effort to coalesce House Republicans around a singular funding plan was fruitless and Johnson ended up working with Democrats to pass a continuing resolution Wednesday. HR 9747 makes its way to the Senate this evening and, if passed, will kick government funding drama back to December, creating the risk of a government shutdown just a few days ahead of Jan. 6 2025, as various components of the government brace for the potential mayhem that may hover around certifying the election results.
On the funding side of things, Johnson struggled with the same issues that have plagued his conference since before he became the designated Kevin McCarthy replacement a year ago. In a bid to please Donald Trump and the most MAGA of House Republicans, Johnson committed earlier this month to attaching the SAVE Act to any funding legislation brought forward for a floor vote. But GOP hardliners abandoned the plan once it became clear that Johnson intended to attach the voting legislation — which would outlaw non-citizen voting (already illegal) and discourage voter participation by requiring an additional voter-registration hurdle, proof of citizenship — to a stopgap bill, a temporary funding solution that deficit hawks despise.
In the end, he worked with Democrats and some Republicans to pass a bill that will fund the government at current levels until Dec. 20 and give $230 million-plus in emergency funds to the Secret Service in the wake of recent assassination attempts on Trump. Kicking another crucial funding deadline to the end of the year, so close to inauguration and Jan. 6, has Democrats uneasy.
Which brings us back to Johnson’s other odious choice: The speaker is leaving town after prevaricating on whether Congress should play its normal role in certifying the results of the election. When asked during a press conference on Tuesday if he’d “commit to observing regular order in the certification process of the 2024 election, even if Kamala Harris beats Donald Trump,” Johnson hedged.
“Well of course — if we have a free, fair, and safe election, we’re going to follow the Constitution. Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely,” he said.
That big “if” fits alongside the various other cryptic, intentionally vague lines that Trump and his allies have been employing for months as they dodge questions about accepting the results of the election. Trump has said repeatedly that he will only accept the results if the election is “fair.”
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toady : one who flatters in the hope of gaining favors : sycophant
And who, if I may ask, just who makes that designation of free, fair and safe?
And what if members of your own party are the source of the not free, unsafe election, like minions attacking Dem-rich voting locations?
And what if members of your own party are the ones deciding to ignore the votes cast in their respective districts or States?
That’s a whole lot of garbage that, as one of the eminent leaders of your party, you should be squashing, not casting doubts about.
OT:
Anyone notice that this got absolutely nil publicity? Johnson isn’t doing things right. [/s]
See “fluffer”.
Mike Johnson is useless.