House Speaker Mike Johnson did his best to explain why he split with the Republican hard right to rely on Democrats for $95 billion in foreign aid to Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan.
His top GOP position at stake, he engaged a month ago in the political unforgiveable in Washington: bipartisan harmony. He called it morally correct behavior.
“My philosophy is do the right thing and let the chips fall where they may,” Johnson said, with conviction. “If I operated out of fear over a motion to vacate, I would never be able to do my job.”
Johnson won praise for courage from Republicans and Democrats, who promised support if rebel Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and her small band of House renegades pursued a vengeful motion to oust him as speaker.
They did and they lost in a lopsided bipartisan vote that promptly scuttled the motion.
But was it really moral courage that motivated Johnson?
That’s iffy when you dissect his decision and the payback it obligated this week outside the New York courthouse where former President Donald Trump is being tried on felony charges he disguised a hush money payment to a porn actress just prior to the 2016 election.
April 12: Johnson, at his request, meets with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to discuss House legislation and Greene’s vow to unseat him as speaker if he dare reach out to Democrats for support on foreign aid to Ukraine. Trump, who now owns the Republican Party, emerged from the rendezvous with a proclamation Johnson is “doing a very good job.”
April 28: The House, with crucial backing from Democrats, approves $60 billion for Ukraine, $26 billion for Israel and $8 billion for Taiwan and the Indo-Pacific region. Trump had convinced Republicans to torpedo an earlier foreign aid bill, but made no effort to intervene this time. Greene is furious, accusing Johnson of breaking a promise to include money for strict border security enforcement in any financial aid package.
May 8: Greene calls for approval of her motion for removal of Johnson as speaker. The motion is quickly put down by the 359-to-43 House vote. Only 11 Republicans and 32 Democrats support the motion. Johnson is safe, probably for the remainder of the year.
May 14: Johnson arrives at the New York courthouse in Trump’s motorcade. Second in line for the presidency, Johnson remarkably attacks the Trump trial as “ridiculous” and a “sham” perpetrated by a “corrupt” justice system, echoing Trump’s frequent characterization of state and federal courts. Johnson does not enter the courtroom, nicknamed the “ice box” by Trump. He returns instead to Washington, his Trump repayment delivered.
Gagged by the judge from raging about his rage, Trump has been joined outside the courthouse and inside the courtroom by Republican politicians and sycophants seeking to curry his favor in the event he wins back the presidency.
“They chose to show up,” Trump remarked Monday. “They view this as a scam.”
That’s their right, of course.
Yet it ill serves democracy for those on the sidelines to amplify Trump’s brutish attacks on fundamental decency and respect for our justice system.