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Increasingly vulnerable New York Republicans Nick LaLota, George Santos, Anthony D’Esposito, Mike Lawler, Marc Molinaro, and Brandon Williams are taking heat from New Yorkers for voting for MAGA Speaker Mike Johnson.
By voting for Johnson, New York Republicans enabled an extreme agenda that supports election denialism, a national abortion ban, and punishing doctors for providing essential reproductive care.
See below for more on New York Republicans taking heat:
Long Island Press: Long Island Congressmen Vote Election Denier Mike Johnson for House Speaker
Rep. Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana), who voted against certifying Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election, was elected Speaker of the House on Wednesday. Reps. Andrew Garbarino, Nick LaLota, Anthony D’Esposito, and George Santos, all Republicans from Long Island, voted for Johnson’s speakership.
The Putnam County Courier: Lawler Backs Right-Wing Extremist for Speaker
Describing Representative Mike Johnson as a man who “has the temperament to lead,” Putnam County Congressman Mike Lawler voted with his Republican colleagues in the House of Representatives last week electing the right-wing Louisiana lawmaker as Speaker of the House.
The unanimous vote of the GOP caucus came after Republicans were worn down by infighting. Mainstream and hard-right Republicans united to elect the deeply conservative lawmaker, who is a leading 2020 election denier.
The Times Union: Editorial: In Congress, the hostage-takers win
Mike Johnson is not the kind of House speaker you get when reasonable people come together in compromise. He is this nation’s new House speaker because Republicans bent to the will of some of the most extreme members of their narrow majority.
Moderates in the GOP who went along with Mr. Johnson’s selection as speaker on Wednesday say they chose him based on what they believe he’ll do going forward, not on his past actions or positions. That took quite a lot of overlooking: Mr. Johnson has denied and actively challenged the validity of the 2020 presidential election. Denied human-driven climate change. Opposed abortion. Opposed gay marriage. Opposed aid to Ukraine. As the saying goes, when someone shows you who they are, you should believe them.
But Republican moderates – several of them from New York – would have Americans ignore Mr. Johnson’s record and instead buy some kinder, gentler version of him.
[…]
Moderates may like to imagine that they’ve pacified the far right for now. But with Mr. Gaetz celebrating Mr. Johnson’s election as evidence that the MAGA movement’s power is “ascendant,” they may well find that in the House, taking government hostage is the new normal.
Daily Freeman: Letter: Molinaro is no moderate
My congressman, Marc Molinaro, does not represent me. In the recently concluded – for now – contest for House Speaker, Molinaro twice voted for Jim Jordan, a fire-breathing, arm-wrestling Trumpster. Then he voted for Lee Zeldin who failed to win the election in New York state. And finally, he went along with the rest of the Republican conference and voted for Mike Johnson.
Molinaro tries to depict himself as a moderate. But these votes show his true colors. All of the nominees he voted for are election deniers. All want to hold funding vital government programs hostage by the threat of a government shutdown. All stand in opposition to the right of women to control their reproductive choices.
The Citizen: Letter: Judge Williams by how he votes
Well we now have a new Speaker of the House of Representatives and his voting record is telling in the very short time that he has been a Representative. He voted against the Infrastructure Act which is now funding the repair of our roads and bridges all across the country. He voted against a very modest new gun law and, as I write this, the news of the slaughter of at least 18 people by a gun wielding shooter in Maine. He voted against a stopgap bill to avert a government shutdown. And even most telling for those of us in Central New York, he voted against the CHIPS and Science Act which is bringing Micron to our community.
But here is the clincher: Our Representative, Brandon Williams, not only voted unequivocally for him, he also voted for all of the previously proposed equally unqualified Representatives.
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