OC Register: “Apparently, election denialism was a GOP requisite to lead the House. Nevertheless, Jordan and Johnson both secured the votes of two Orange County members who should have known better.”
Yesterday, The Orange County Register released an editorial expressing its deep disappointment in California Representatives Michelle Steel and Young Kim for their votes electing Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House. Steel and Kim like to pretend to be moderates — while simultaneously empowering a speaker who…
- Pushed for a total abortion ban without exceptions and voted for legislation to punish doctors for providing essential reproductive care.
- Served as the chair of the Republican Study Committee, leading their efforts to slash Social Security and Medicare.
- Spent years working to maintain criminalization of same-sex relationships, writing that homosexuality was an “inherently unnatural” and “dangerous lifestyle.”
- Was instrumental in the plan to overturn the 2020 election — the New York Times named Johnson “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections.”
The Orange County Register: Orange County Republicans Kim and Steel choose MAGA over governing
Editorial Board | October 25, 2023
- The GOP-controlled House of Representatives had gone three weeks without a speaker, after Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida – one of the House’s most flamboyant pro-MAGA members – led a motion to vacate the speaker’s chair because Kevin McCarthy had worked with Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.
- After a series of failed candidates, the GOP selected – and the House voted – to make Mike Johnson of Louisiana the new speaker. Johnson is little known, but was neck-deep in efforts to overturn the 2020 election. He even sent an email to House Republicans urging them to sign onto an amicus brief in a Texas lawsuit to invalidate electoral-college votes from several states.
- Before Johnson, the Republican caucus selected Jim Jordan of Ohio, a MAGA bomb-thrower. The House’s January 6 report called Jordan “a significant player” in efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
- Apparently, election denialism was a GOP requisite to lead the House. Nevertheless, Jordan and Johnson both secured the votes of two Orange County members who should have known better.
- We would have expected both members to hold out for a speaker candidate who was less of an ideological rabble-rouser.
- And yet with the speaker vote, they both gave in to the most extreme form of Trumpism.
- We look forward to hearing their justifications as the congressional races get underway.
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