House Speaker Mike Johnson made an appearance at Donald Trump’s hush money trial Tuesday in an unofficial declaration that the GOP is opposed to the rule of law—a photo op likely designed to shore up his own support among hard-liners.
“President Trump is a friend, and I wanted to be here to support him,” Johnson said. “I’m here speaking with you outside because the court won’t allow us to speak inside the building. That’s just one of the many things that are wrong here.”
“These are politically motivated trials, and they are a disgrace. It is election interference, and they show how desperate—the opposition that President Trump has—how desperate they truly are,” he continued.
Well, someone is certainly desperate. Johnson’s appearance at Trump’s side comes after his nemesis, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, came after him on Fox News last week, claiming that Johnson “refuses to protect President Trump even though he runs down to Mar-a-Lago every chance he gets and hugs him as tightly as possible.”
Johnson’s fealty to Trump caught former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney by surprise, given the salacious nature of the charges against the defendant.
Johnson joins the growing list of Trump toadies who’ve shown up in Manhattan during the trial. Along with him were vice president wannabe Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota and a couple of Freedom Caucus members.
After his visit in Manhattan, Johnson flew back to Washington, D.C., to commemorate National Police Week with a prayer vigil. While publicly praying for cops, he is also stonewalling a permanent memorial in the Capitol dedicated to the officers who protected Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, an honor that has been delayed for more than a year. The government funding bill passed in March 2022 included a provision requiring Congress to create and display a plaque within one year to honor those law enforcement officers. It still hasn’t been done.
Former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell has been pushing lawmakers, specifically Johnson, to get it done. He believes the delay is political.
“On Jan. 6, we protected Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell just as much as we protected Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer,” Gonell told NBC News, adding that Johnson “should approve installing the plaque immediately and Capitol Police Board should make it accessible so the American people understand the danger we faced and the magnitude of our sacrifices protecting our elected leaders, our Capitol, our democracy.”
None of this is surprising, as Johnson was an architect of Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. But his standing by Trump and declaring a court of law illegitimate is definitely taking it a step further.
Johnson is doing all of this in an attempt to consolidate his support in the fractious House GOP conference—and he’s going to need it. After these antics, he can kiss goodbye to any help from Democrats to save his ass again.
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