(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Illegally Speaking [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-10-28 After Mike Johnson (R-La) was elected Speaker of the House, his record has come under much more intense scrutiny. As a result, we have a lot more evidence of his role in Donald Trump’s conspiracy to throw out the 2020 presidential election results so he could stay in office. As part of this plot to overthrow the legally elected government of the United States, I think it is fair to include Johnson as one of the insurrectionists. He worked with Donald Trump to interfere with the legal counting of Electoral Votes on 6 January 2021. As such, he fits the definition of someone prohibited from holding government office in this country. Remember that the essence of Trump’s plot was to throw enough doubt on the election results that he could get the House to elect him President. As he told acting deputy attorney general Richard Donoghue on a call, according to Donoghue’s notes: Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen. (Jeremy Herb on CNN, 31 July 2021) Which congressmen? According to Mike Johnson, he was in close contact with Donald Trump during this time, from 6 November 2020 to 6 January 2021. A few days after the 2020 election, [Johnson wrote on ex-Twitter], “I have just called President Trump to say this: ‘Stay strong and keep fighting, sir! The nation is depending upon your resolve. We must exhaust every available legal remedy to restore Americans’ trust in the fairness of our election system.’” (Rachel Leingang in The Guardian, 25 October 2023) [On 9 November 2021, Johnson said on ex-Twitter] “President Trump called me last night….and I was encouraged to hear his continued resolve to ensure that every LEGAL vote gets properly counted and that all instances of fraud and illegality are investigated and prosecuted.” Johnson appeared intimately familiar with Trump and his campaign’s legal strategy, predicting the filing of at least 10 lawsuits in the coming days. The lawmaker added hopes that one of them wound up on a “rocket docket” to the high court. He revealed that his views on election fraud were in many ways shaped by the 1996 Senate race between Democrat Mary Landrieu and Republican Woody Jenkins. By Nov. 17, 2020, Johnson told two Louisiana radio hosts that the election was not over — and that Trump didn’t think so either. “I don’t concede anything,” he said. “I’ve talked to the president in the last few days, and he is still dug in on this.” (Kyle Cheney and Nicholas Wu in Politico, 25 October 2023) According to Summer Concepcion at NBC News: “Well before he was elected House speaker, Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., played a key role in efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral victory in the 2020 election.” [Johnson] led the amicus brief signed by more than 100 House Republicans in support of a Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate the 2020 election results in four swing states Biden won: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. I believe Mike Johnson is disqualified to be Speaker of the House. This is a constitutional position, not just a member of Congress. As such, it is subject to the qualification defined in the Constitution: No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. [Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3] Donald Trump engaged in insurrection against the United States and Mike Johnson gave him aid and comfort in his efforts to do so. I believe this is a text book case of someone violating the expressed language of the Fourteenth Amendment, and that makes Johnson ineligible to be Speaker. There are plenty of Republicans in the House who voted against confirming Joe Biden as President. And they shouldn’t be there. But it makes sense to let this be up to their constituents. However, the Speakership is not just any congressional seat. The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers… [Article I, Section 2, Paragraph 5] It’s clear from this that the Speaker is an office under the federal government, and as such it clearly fits the “any office” part of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Democratic Caucus in the House needs to take this up. I think they should form a committee to pursue a lawsuit against Mike Johnson that would force him to resign from the office. The courts should eject him based on the plain language of the Constitution and his own admissions to be part of Donald Trump’s plot to stop democracy in its tracks on January 6th. This is an important issue for the courts to decide. Do they allow someone to thwart the will of the people and still hold office? Is that legal? I don’t think so. I’ve read the Constitution, and it’s pretty clear that isn’t its intention. But even if the courts don’t pitch Johnson out of the Speakership, it’s important to put the Republicans on notice that this is a real issue their party needs to deal with. Do they allow people who broke the law to represent them? Are they on the side of democracy or tyranny? Whose side are they on, anyway? And, it’s important to raise this as an issue with the American people, specifically the voters. Are they going to continue to put illegitimate candidates in office? Are they going to support people who want to destroy our government? The Republican Party is apparently shameless. I’m not sure that’s true of the American people. 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