Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) stated Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) ought to be re-elected as Home Speaker, noting the Louisiana Republican “inherited a disaster.”
Throughout an look on ABC’s “This Week,” host Jonathan Karl requested Lawler whether or not Johnson would and ought to be reelected as Speaker.
“Yes, and yes,” he replied. “The fact is that Mike Johnson inherited a disaster when Matt Gaetz and several of my colleagues teamed up with 208 Democrats to remove Kevin McCarthy, which will go down as the single stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in politics.”
Lawler was referencing the chaotic elimination of former Home Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in October 2023. The mutiny was led by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and got here days after the previous California Republican averted a authorities shutdown by placing a stopgap measure on the ground that garnered Democratic assist — a transfer that infuriated hardline Republicans.
Lawler, who represents a district received by President Biden in 2020 and Vice President Harris, acknowledged that eradicating Johnson would “equally be as stupid.”
“The fact is that these folks are playing with fire,” he stated. “And if they think they’re somehow going to get a more conservative speaker, they’re kidding themselves.”
“Mike Johnson is arguably the most conservative speaker that’s ever been elected to the office,” he added.
Lawler famous that nothing can get finished and not using a Home Speaker.
“We can’t get anything done unless we have a speaker, including certifying President Trump’s election on January 6th. So, to waste time over a nonsensical intramural food fight is a joke,” he stated.
Regardless of his assist, Lawler has pushed again on Johnson’s dealing with of the persevering with decision (CR). At one level, he stood up throughout the GOP convention assembly and instructed Johnson the federal government funding course of has not been member-driven, in accordance with a supply within the room.
Home conservatives had been infuriated earlier this month by the 1,547-page invoice Johnson and different congressional leaders unveiled a couple of days earlier than a authorities funding deadline.
The measure was later slimmed to 116 pages and handed by giant margins in each chambers.
