Political playbook journalists, who spent over an hour with Mike Johnson on Wednesday, noted that the speaker is “wrestling with his split personality.” He’s Donald Trump’s loyal lieutenant, but he’s also interested in governing to find consensus and praises his adversaries. The writers at Playbook, Ryan Lizza, Eli Okun, and Eugene Daniels, said he’s also ready to critique the former president’s bad ideas gently.
Johnson wants to govern from consensus with people who want to imprison the opponent’s presidential candidate with Lawfare.
DEMOCRAT VOTES SAVED JOHNSON
He maintained his speakership with a large number of Democrat votes. It seems the fix is in, and he promised to keep Jack Smith.
One of the questions that Marjorie Taylor Greene asked him before she moved to vacate him was if he would defund Jack Smith. Smith is the notoriously dishonest and partisan special counsel. He was allegedly appointed illegally.
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Speaker Johnson said he wouldn’t, so Marjorie moved ahead with the motion to vacate.
He claimed using appropriations to cancel Smith is “unworkable:”
“That’s not something you wave a wand and just eliminate the special counsel as a provision,” the former constitutional law attorney explained. “There is a necessity for a function like that because sometimes the Department of Justice — which is an executive branch agency — can’t necessarily, without a conflict of interest, investigate or prosecute the president who’s their boss, or the president’s family.”
Politico followed up: So, are you prepared to write language eliminating Smith’s job into appropriations bills?
His answer? “No.”
I triggered my Motion to Vacate yesterday because Mike Johnson refused to commit to defunding Special Council Jack Smith.
Now, he’s not just saying he won’t defund it, he’s promising to PROTECT it.
If the Democrats saving Mike Johnson’s Speakership didn’t convince you he’s in…
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) May 9, 2024
Speaker Johnson said he doesn’t hold a grudge against those who tried to oust him.
INVESTIGATIONS?
Johnson has been vocal in his criticisms of Jack Smith this week, but his words don’t go anywhere. He told Politico he’s been in touch with House Judiciary Chair JIM JORDAN (R-Ohio) about how they might rein Smith in. [They are investigating, and we have all seen how those investigations go.]
“We were in the very beginning stages of even beginning to investigate what that would look like,” he said. “I do think there has to be accountability. I do think, you know, Congress has the power of the purse, of course. And we have oversight responsibility. And we’ve been vigorously using both of those powers that we have.”
They are in the very beginning stages, while Democrats are rushing ahead to bankrupt and imprison our candidate with invented crimes!
TRUMP RESPONDS WITH SOME SUPPORT – BAD TIMING
I absolutely love Marjorie Taylor Greene. She’s got Spirit, she’s got Fight, and I believe she’ll be around, and on our side, for a long time to come. However, right now, Republicans have to be fighting the Radical Left Democrats, and all the Damage they have done to our… pic.twitter.com/tuGL9rL9cL
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) May 9, 2024
Is Johnson really looking for other ways to pursue Jack Smith? Well, we know he thinks you can’t “wave a magic wand” at it. He also wants to lead by consensus – like Mitch McConnell – and he won with Democrat votes.
REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE’S CASE
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) pointed out Johnson’s statement on X, writing, “Mike Johnson when asked if he will stop the witch hunt that aims to throw President Trump in jail FOR LIFE!”
“Not only did Mike Johnson fund Ukraine, Israel, and Taiwan without committing funding to protect the US border, but he also promised to protect hired gun Jack Smith.
“This is after Jack Smith admitted he lied to the court and tampered with evidence related to his classified docs case against Trump.
“I triggered my Motion to Vacate yesterday because Mike Johnson refused to commit to defunding Special Council Jack Smith,” MTG said on Thursday. “Now, he’s not just saying he won’t defund it; he’s promising to PROTECT it.”
“If the Democrats saving Mike Johnson’s Speakership didn’t convince you he’s in fact their Speaker of the House, this should!” she added.
Mike Johnson when asked if he will stop the witch hunt that aims to throw President Trump in jail FOR LIFE! pic.twitter.com/MyosP1FAMj
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (@RepMTG) May 9, 2024
IS HE BLACKMAILED?
The Louisiana Speaker uses his son Jack as his porn accountability partner. He also uses third-party software to blur out porn. The third-party software, Covenant Eyes, scans all of the party’s devices and sends possible porn to the person’s accountability partner.
COMPROMISE ALERT: Speaker Mike Johnson uses software Covenant Eyes (learned about at a Promise Keepers retreat) that scans all his electronic devices & gives a weekly report an “accountability partner” his 17 yr old son (so basically don’t watch porn or your son/dad will know) pic.twitter.com/SSWpB9IIDB
— Receipt Maven (@receiptmaven) October 31, 2023
The Covenant Eyes Scheme
Covenant Eyes is part of a multimillion-dollar ecosystem of so-called accountability apps. These apps are marketed to both churches and parents as tools to police online activity, and they charge a monthly fee to do so. Some of these apps monitor everything their users see and do on their devices, even taking screenshots (at least one per minute, in the case of Covenant Eyes) and eavesdropping on web traffic, WIRED found. The apps then report a feed of all of the users’ online activity directly to a chaperone—an “accountability partner,” in the apps’ parlance. When WIRED presented its findings to Google, however, the company determined that two of the top accountability apps—Covenant Eyes and Accountable2You—violate its policies.
Maybe, just maybe, this is a very bad idea? We don’t know if he still uses it. The clip is old.
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