Mike Johnson’s 'Trump-loving, election-denying' history will be a huge 'albatross' for GOP in 2024: columnist

When House Republicans nominated Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) for speaker, they picked someone with a much different personality from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) — a previous nominee who had lost three votes in a row. Jordan is flamboyant, abrasive, performative and highly theatrical; Johnson, in contrast, has a much calmer disposition.

But from a policy standpoint, Johnson, critics say, is no less radical than Jordan. In an opinion column published on October 30, MSNBC's Michael A. Cohen (not to be confused with 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner Donald Trump's former personal attorney and speaker) urges Democrats to use Johnson's far-right record to tar and feather House Republicans in 2024.

"Johnson is a Trump-loving, election-denying, abortion ban-supporting, gay rights-opposing, climate change-rejecting, and conspiracy-believing conservative," Cohen explains. "If House Democrats are smart, they will turn Mike Johnson into a household name — though not in a good way."

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House Republicans, Cohen adds, "failed to vet" Johnson when they nominated him for speaker. Johnson, according to Cohen, is a "dream speaker" for Democrats because he gives them so many reasons to bash Republicans.

"On practically every issue on which House Republicans will be vulnerable in 2024," the MSNBC columnist notes, "Johnson takes an extreme, maximalist position. For any GOP candidates in a close race, and especially the 18 House Republicans running in congressional districts President Biden won in 2020, he will be a political albatross."

Cohen adds, "Let's start with a simple example: safeguarding American democracy. Johnson wasn't just an accomplice in Trump's efforts to steal the 2020 election; he was, as The New York Times put it, 'an architect' of GOP objections to certifying election results in the House of Representatives…. While many members supported Trump for cynical reasons, Johnson was a true believer, even signing an amicus brief in support of Texas' lawsuit to invalidate election results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan and Wisconsin."

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Read Michael A. Cohen's full MSNBC column at this link.