Practically nobody knew who Mike Johnson was yesterday morning, and everything we have learned since has proven that Johnson’s speakership cements the extreme MAGA takeover of the House Republican Conference. Since getting the gavel, Johnson has received nothing but praise from Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans – who’ve dubbed him “MAGA Mike” – while facing new scrutiny for his role leading efforts to overturn the 2020 election, fighting for a national abortion ban, railing against equal rights for the LGBTQ community, and working to gut Social Security and Medicare.

Johnson is a staunch ally of Donald Trump who has received nothing but praise from the former president and his MAGA minions since becoming speaker. They’ve even nicknamed him “MAGA Mike.”

Trump: “MAGA MIKE JOHNSON!”

Matt Gaetz: “MAGA is ascendant, and if you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement, and where the power of the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention.”

Trump: “We think Mike Johnson is going to do really well. He’s popular. He’s smart. He’s sharp. He’s going to do fantastic… I think he’s going to be a fantastic Speaker.”

CNN: “Why Trump is so happy about the new House speaker”

The Hill: “Johnson won the gavel with the full support of the Republican conference Tuesday, including lawmakers closely aligned with Trump.”

CNN: “But the record suggests [Johnson] is no less partisan, particularly on issues of importance to Trump, like the 2020 election and Republicans’ effort to impeach President Joe Biden.”

Johnson is refusing to answer questions about his role as a behind-the-scenes “architect” of Trump’s Big Lie — helping spread election conspiracy theories and leading the effort to overturn the 2020 election results.

Politico: “A relatively junior House Republican at the time, Johnson was nevertheless the leading voice in support of a fateful position: that the GOP should rally around Donald Trump and object to counting electoral votes submitted by at least a handful of states won by Joe Biden…

“A review of the chaotic weeks between Trump’s defeat at the polls on Nov. 3, 2020, and the Jan. 6 Capitol attack shows that Johnson led the way in shaping legal arguments that became gospel among GOP lawmakers who sought to derail Biden’s path to the White House — even after all but the most extreme options had elapsed. As Trump’s legal challenges faltered, Johnson consistently spread a singular message: It’s not over yet.”

Washington Post: “In the weeks after the 2020 election, an obscure Republican lawmaker from Louisiana led a congressional effort to overturn the presidential results in four battleground states that had helped secure Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump… Johnson played one of the most significant roles of any member of Congress in the effort to overturn the election.”

Johnson is an anti-abortion extremist who’s repeatedly supported and voted for a cruel national abortion ban. 

New York Times: “In Congress, Mr. Johnson has voted for a national abortion ban and co-sponsored a 20-week abortion ban, earning him an A-plus rating from the anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America. After the Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade in June last year, he celebrated.”

Jezebel: “Shortly after Johnson’s confirmation, on Thursday New York Magazine’s Irin Carmon resurfaced an old interview between her and Johnson from 2015 when he served in Louisiana’s state House and was working to dismantle abortion access. 

At the time, Carmon writes that Johnson, who expressed hope that Roe v. Wade would someday be overturned, railed against people supposedly ‘using abortion as birth control’ and appeared to blame school shootings on abortion: ‘When you break up the nuclear family, when you tell a generation of people that life has no value, no meaning, that it’s expendable, then you do wind up with school shooters.’”

During Johnson’s time as a chair and current member of the ultra-conservative Republican Study Committee, he’s supported slashing trillions from Social Security and Medicare. 

Common Dreams: “The newly elected Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has previously proposed trillions of dollars in cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and suggested that slashing the programs should be the top priority of Congress.

“During his tenure as chair of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) between 2019 and 2021, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) helped craft budget resolutions that called for roughly $2 trillion in Medicare cuts, $3 trillion in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act cuts, and $750 billion in Social Security Cuts, noted Bobby Kogan of the Center for American Progress.”

Semafor: “These days, the RSC is best known around Washington as a GOP policy shop responsible for crafting proposals to balance the federal budget, often through changes and cuts to Social Security and Medicare.” 

Johnson has a long history of making hateful comments about the LGBTQ community – and has supported and introduced legislation that refuses to grant LGBTQ people the equal rights they deserve. 

ABC News: “An ABC News examination of public records, news reports and documents shows the extent to which Johnson dedicated earlier phases of his career to limiting gay rights, including same-sex marriage and health care access, and through anti-gay activism on college campuses.

[…]

“In 2005, the Family Research Council, an influential right-wing lobbying group, honored Johnson for his work defending Louisiana’s constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage.”

CNN: “Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has a history of harsh anti-gay language from his time as an attorney for a socially conservative legal group in the mid-2000s. In editorials that ran in his local Shreveport, Louisiana, paper, The Times, Johnson called homosexuality a ‘inherently unnatura’ and ‘dangerous lifestyle’ that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy ‘the entire democratic system.’

“And, in another editorial, he wrote, ‘Your race, creed, and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do,” he wrote. “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.’

[…]

“Now, Johnson is the speaker of the House at a time when a majority of Americans are strongly supportive of gay rights.”

Insider: “Last October, Johnson led over two dozen of his colleagues in introducing the “Stop the Sexualization of Children Act of 2022.”

The bill is essentially the national version of Florida’s Parental Rights in Education Law — dubbed “Don’t Say Gay” by critics.

[…]

That’s led the Human Rights Campaign to condemn the bill as the ‘latest cruel attempt to stigmatize and marginalize the community.’”