Happy Monday and welcome to another week of MAGA Mike Johnson marching in lockstep with Donald Trump by using the People’s House as a personal stage for Trump’s campaign sequel. This week, MAGA Mike is wasting Americans’ time and tax dollars by pursuing a baseless impeachment inquiry instead of working to deliver for the American people.

DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika released the following statement:

“MAGA Mike Johnson, Trump’s top minion in Congress, dragging on a baseless impeachment sham against President Biden instead of actually putting forth an agenda to provide relief for working families. Johnson is wasting Americans’ time and tax dollars by relentlessly attacking President Biden and his family at Trump’s behest – and thanks to Johnson’s extreme, partisan leadership, Trump is already attempting to weaponize the government in the name of ‘retribution’ as he doubles down on his promise to be a dictator ‘on day one.’ From peddling outrageous conspiracy theories to operating an arm of Trump’s campaign within the halls of Congress, Johnson has shown he will do anything but actually deliver for the American people.” 

MAGA Mike doesn’t practice what he preaches. Johnson is moving forward with Donald Trump’s plans to formalize an impeachment inquiry against President Biden, despite previously saying doing so could cause “irreparable damage” to the country when Democrats sought to oust former President Donald Trump.

CNN: “House Speaker Mike Johnson is pursuing an impeachment strategy against President Joe Biden that he once said could cause “irreparable damage” to the country when Democrats sought to oust then-President Donald Trump, according to a CNN KFile review of his past public comments.”

“He argued the Democrats’ grievances against Trump should be settled by voters and not through such an extreme remedy as impeachment.”

“Somewhat prophetically, he warned Democrats that what they were doing was “short-sighted” and said that impeaching Trump opened a “Pandora’s box” in which every opposition party in control of the House could impeach the president, an outcome he asserted the Founding Fathers feared. He also complained that the effort derailed Congress from its real work of legislating.”

‘“What happens a few years from now, 10 years from now, 20 years from now? You have a Democrat in the White House and you have a Republican majority in the House. Do you think the Republican base in the country is gonna be satisfied…?” Johnson asked in the interview. “They’re gonna demand that they be impeached because you’ve now set the bar so low that we’re going into tribal politics now. I mean, if you think politics were divided before this, heaven help us.”’

“Now Johnson, as the speaker of the House, seems to have abandoned his previous concerns about impeachment, and — with Republicans in control of the House — has said he fully supports such an inquiry along party lines and so close to a presidential election.”

Roll Call: ANALYSIS — Speaker Mike Johnson is moving forward with a floor vote to formalize House Republicans’ impeachment probe of President Joe Biden, a move former Speaker Kevin McCarthy floated but never made.

Johnson has signaled through words and actions that he and other House GOP leaders were confident they would have ample Republican votes on the floor to formally authorize the inquiry. He told reporters that “the House has no choice” but to approve an impeachment resolution and an accompanying measure that spells out subpoena powers for the three committees conducting the inquiry. 

USA Today: Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, one of Trump’s most vocal supporters in the House, has not shied away from pushing for Biden’s impeachment in part to play politics.

If Trump, who has been impeached twice, is the 2024 Republican nominee, Nehls said he wants to give Trump “a little bit of ammo to fire back” and say Biden has also been impeached.

The Messenger: Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Monday suggested moderate Republicans may go along with a new attempt to launch a presidential impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden because they could face primary threats if they don’t.

“If you’re a Republican, do you really want to guarantee a primary opponent by voting against looking into [Biden]?” Gingrich said while appearing on Fox and Friends.

Johnson gave a speech to anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ extremists where he compared himself to Moses.

Rolling Stone: In a keynote speech to a gathering of Christian nationalist lawmakers Tuesday night, House Speaker Mike Johnson compared himself to Moses, leading the GOP conference — and America — through the parted waters of the Red Sea. 

“Johnson’s speech to the National Association of Christian Lawmakers — a group that seeks to enact its anti-abortion and anti-LGBTQ “biblical worldview” into law — is just the latest evidence that the politician who is now second in line for the presidency views himself as on a divine mission. Rolling Stone previously reported on Johnson’s exhortations to save a “depraved” America from God’s wrath and vengeance.”

“America, Johnson insisted, is “engaged in a battle between worldviews” and “a great struggle for the future of the Republic.” The specifics of that struggle remained unspoken. But the NACL mission, according to materials promoting the gala, includes: “abolishing abortion”; restoring “traditional marriage between one man and one woman”; and “exposing the ungodly effort to undermine our culture by Leftists,”. Johnson added that he believed far-right Christians will prevail: “We should not be daunted. In the face of these challenges. Our hope is in the Lord, our hope, and our trust is in God.”’

Per usual, MAGA Mike Johnson is turning to Trump’s playbook on how to implement his extreme MAGA agenda across America. New reporting uncovered that Johnson’s inner circle is chock full of MAGA minions.

NBC News: Mentors, Senate rebels and Trump officials: Meet Speaker Mike Johnson’s inner circle

As one of the least experienced speakers in recent history, Johnson, 51, is now relying on a cadre of trusted House allies, senators, former Trump officials and congressional leadership aides to help him navigate a perilous political landscape made more complicated by the GOP’s razor-thin majority, divided government and fresh shutdown threats.

His other mentor is Jordan, R-Ohio, another former Republican Study Committee chairman who was also the founding chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, the far-right group of which Johnson was briefly a member.

Sens. Mike Lee, R-Utah; Rick Scott, R-Fla.; and Ron Johnson, R-Wis.; have earned reputations for bucking their party leadership and causing headaches for Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. 

Tides have been shifting in the Senate this year; as then-Speaker McCarthy faced rampant demands from hard-liners in the House, the conservative flank across the Capitol was emboldened in turn.

Now, with conservative newbie Johnson wielding the gavel, the Senate trio feels more empowered than ever to protest the views of leadership and instead push belt-tightening fiscal policies found untenable by the Democratic-led Senate.

Perhaps Johnson’s most well-known staffer is Raj Shah, a former Trump staffer, whom the speaker has tapped to run his communications operation. Shah has spent the past four years as senior vice president at Fox Corp. and earlier held top communications roles in the Trump White House and at the Republican National Committee.

Chad Gilmartin is another former Trump official whom Johnson has brought onto his communications team; after Trump left office in 2021, Gilmartin went to work for McCarthy.

Just like Trump, MAGA Mike is peddling outrageous conspiracy theories online. New reporting uncovered that Johnson has endorsed baseless conspiracy theories and homophobic slurs on his podcast and social media platforms.

CNN: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson wrote the foreword and publicly promoted a 2022 book that spread baseless and discredited conspiracy theories and used derogatory homophobic insults.

Written by Scott McKay, a local Louisiana politics blogger, the book, “The Revivalist Manifesto,” gives credence to unfounded conspiracy theories often embraced by the far-right – including the “Pizzagate” hoax, which falsely claimed top Democratic officials were involved in a pedophile ring, among other conspiracies.

The book also propagates baseless and inaccurate claims, implying that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was subjected to blackmail and connected to the disgraced underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Other sections of the book defend podcaster Joe Rogan from racism charges after it was revealed he used the N-word, which Rogan later apologized for. The book also disparages poor voters as “unsophisticated and susceptible to government dependency” and easy to manipulate with “Black Lives Matter ‘defund the police’ pandering.”

Johnson’s endorsement of the book extends beyond the foreword: In 2022, he actively promoted the book on his public social media platforms and even dedicated an episode of his podcast he co-hosts with his wife to hosting McKay.

During the podcast episode, Johnson expressed his belief in the book, stating, “I obviously believe in the product, or I wouldn’t have written the foreword. So I endorse the work.”

In his book, McKay insinuates that hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman John Podesta contained coded references hinting involvement in “child sex trafficking” because of “unexplained references” to “hot dogs and pizza,” resembling alleged code words used by pedophiles.

The book repeatedly disparages Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling the former mayor a “queer choice” for the Cabinet position and saying he had “queer sanctimony” and was “openly, and obnoxiously, gay.” At one point, the book labels him “Gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg.”

The book denies that carbon dioxide is linked to climate change and frequently mocks the climate crisis as “hysteria.”

The book targets and taunts prominent Democratic officials, including calling Interior Secretary Deb Haaland “half oppressed” because her mother is Native American and father is of Norwegian descent and writes that former President Barack Obama’s “chief selling point was that he was black.”