Gaetz has worked with Johnson on the House Judiciary Committee for seven years, he told talk show host and former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon during an appearance on his show Wednesday.
House Republicans made Johnson the Speaker after three previous Republicans could not gather enough support after being named the nominee. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was kicked out of the job more than three weeks ago and the House had passed no bills from then until Johnson was elected.
“The swamp is on the run, MAGA is ascendant, and if you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement, and where the power of the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention,” Gaetz said.
Gaetz spearheaded the effort to oust McCarthy earlier this month, citing a lack of trust and broken promises.
“We’re in the majority right now,” Johnson said after being sworn in as Speaker. “We’ve gone through a little bit of character building, and you know what it’s produced: more strength, more perseverance and a lot of hope.”
Seen article mentioned on The Hill, Rising:
Briahna Joy Gray and Robby Soave weigh in on Rep. Matt Gaetz’s reaction to Speaker Mike Johnson’s win of the Speaker’s gavel.
Matt Gaetz: MAGA TAKEOVER Of GOP Is COMPLETE, PRAISES ‘Sharp’ Speaker Mike Johnson
He’s absolutely right; it’s a fundamentally Republican feature to allow an extremist minority to control everyone else. The electoral college gives republicans a huge advantage in presidential elections, for example, and now we see that the Freedom Caucus, a very small cadre of right wing extremists, can exert it’s will over the entire 435-member Congress. Instead of compromise, a handful of wackos elected a guy who swore to “fight vigorously with the Democrats.”
I would’ve been content to see some more infighting followed by a moderate R elected, but the route they’re currently taking will lead to long term devastation to the party and I’m here for it.
I keep hearing about these ‘consequences’ of which people speak, but I have yet to directly observe any.
Well, we did get a red premature-ejaculation instead of the red wave that historical trends and polling at the time expected us to receive in the last mid-terms.
But yeah, despite a completely obvious and open moral bankruptcy folks keep voting for them.
Even pre-Covid they have been dying faster though, so there’s that… https://scitechdaily.com/a-mortality-gap-republicans-are-dying-at-a-higher-rate-than-democrats/
Based on historical trends, they should have outperformed democrats in the last midterms. They did not. The fact that the freedom caucus exists is a consequence of trump becoming the republican party. They never actually want to govern (they usually complain that government doesn’t work and then slash government funding and power to make it a self fulfilling prophecy) but now they are actually incapable of governing because of how poisoned the party is.
I just hope we survive the short term devastation they do to the country in the mean time.
Yep, it’s one of the first things I’ve seen him say that I agree with. It’s just that he thinks it’s a good thing and I think it’s a horrific thing.