Democrats are testing whether a moment when Republicans shouted down a reporter for asking about Mike Johnson’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election will have a political impact.
When House Republicans held an impromptu press conference late Tuesday night to celebrate coalescing around their new speaker nominee, they were in no mood to answer tough questions—or even the obvious one.
So when ABC reporter Rachel Scott asked Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA)—the speaker nominee who has now been elevated to the speakership—about his leading efforts to overturn the 2020 election, Republicans were having none of it.
They drowned out the reporter with boos. Johnson said “next question.” And Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) told the reporter to “shut up!”
Now, a D.C.-based advocacy group, Courage For America, is seizing on the moment to attack Republicans and quickly define the new speaker.
Eh. The speaker of the house isn’t something a swing voter cares about. I doubt they understand the basic civics of what all this means, or else they would have picked a side by now. We’re definitely not in a “Both sides have decent ideas, so im not sure” era.
Edit - I’m sure it will help bleed “fiscal conservatives” some more, though.
True they probably dont care about who the speaker is. But he is now the defacto leader of republicans in governemnt. Ads showing Johnson calling for the criminalization of homosexuality, killing medicare/social security, repealing gay marriage or even walking back no fault divorces will be powerful. Johnson sets the legislative agenda in the house, tying reps to his agenda is what every republican ad did with Nancy Pelosi for god knows how long.
Though i wonder if Johnson is still speaker by next fall. Dude is going to run afoul of someone sooner or later and we will get another motion to vacate
They care about what ads tell them to care about basically, and if this guy creates a bunch of content for the Democrats, it will flip people. They may not pay attention to what’s going on, but that doesn’t mean they’re unreachable.