A new message from your friends at People For the American Way.
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Friend,

Welcome to our weekly “Trumptastrophe” email series, that will serve to
remind us all of the destructive policies, decisions, and actions we
encountered during the Trump presidency and the threats that he and others
in the MAGA movement still pose – and to keep those moments clear in our
memory as we fight to defeat Republican extremists during the upcoming
elections.

This week’s recap focuses on the rise of new Speaker of the House Mike
Johnson – a longtime supporter and ally of former President Trump and the
pro-MAGA, Christian nationalist policies he seeks to advance:

The last week of October 2020, then-President Donald Trump interrupted his
intense schedule of campaign rallies to host a celebration and swearing in
for Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett, whose confirmation was rushed
through the Senate even as Americans were voting to dump Trump from the
White House. Barrett was a favorite of Christian nationalist activists,
some of whom declared that [ [link removed] ]God had anointed her to serve on the Supreme
Court and overturn Roe v. Wade, which she voted to do at her first
opportunity.

Barrett was closely aligned with the religious-right legal movement,
having been paid at least five times to speak to students in the
anti-choice and anti-LGBTQ Alliance Defending Freedom’s Blackstone Legal
Fellowship program. Blackstone trains young lawyers to advance ADF’s
“biblical worldview” through the law and fosters their careers in pursuit
of a stated goal to “recover the robust Christendomic theology of the 3rd,
4th, and 5th centuries.”

When House Republicans were scrambling to settle on a candidate for
Speaker of the House after dumping Kevin McCarthy, one name that rose to
the top was Rep. Tom Emmer. But Emmer was savaged by Trump, MAGA
activists, and right-wing media figures, and withdrew his name just hours
after winning a vote in the Republican caucus.

Trump then threw his support to Rep. Mike Johnson, who had been one of
Trump’s most ardent loyalists. Johnson had denounced Trump’s impeachment
and became a chief strategist of MAGA Republican efforts to stop
congressional confirmation of President Joe Biden’s victory on Jan. 6,
2021.

Exhausted from a series of failed efforts to elect a speaker, House
Republicans rallied unanimously behind Johnson on Wednesday, electing him
before the American public had much of a chance to learn about him. Here
are some things Americans deserve to know:

* Johnson is a former lawyer and spokesperson for the [ [link removed] ]Alliance
Defending Freedom and shares the group’s extreme opposition to
reproductive freedom and LGBTQ equality—positions that are opposed by
large majorities of Americans.
* Johnson has defended legislation banning abortion without exceptions
for victims of rape and incest and is a promoter of the extreme
anti-choice “[ [link removed] ]personhood” movement, which seeks to have fertilized
eggs treated as full persons under the law and U.S. Constitution from
the moment of conception, which would require a national ban on
abortions and some forms of birth control.
* Last year, Johnson [ [link removed] ]introduced a national version of Florida’s
“Don’t Say Gay” bill that would impose sweeping anti-LGBTQ censorship
on public libraries, schools, military bases, and hospitals.
* In 2021, Johnson spoke at the WallBuilders ProFamily Legislators
Conference, where he [ [link removed] ]heaped praise on Christian nationalist
pseudo-historian David Barton, saying that Barton's work "has had such
a profound influence on me and my work and my life."
* Johnson has promoted anti-immigrant “great replacement theory”
[ [link removed] ]rhetoric favored by nativists and antisemitic white nationalists.
He has repeatedly accused President Joe Biden of [ [link removed] ]intentionally
seeking to destroy America through immigration.
* Pastor and right-wing political activist Rick Scarborough calls
Johnson a friend, and in 2019 [ [link removed] ]celebrated that “God just elevated
him to be head of the Republican Study Committee.” Johnson
had [ [link removed] ]announced and promoted his 2018 bid for that post on Family
Research Council President Tony Perkin’s “Washington Watch” radio
show, saying the RSC’s mission was to steer the GOP to the right.
* In his first remarks to the House of Representatives as speaker,
Johnson suggested that God had placed him in power, saying he doesn’t
believe in coincidences and citing a Bible verse about God putting
people in positions of authority.
* Far-right activists were gleeful at Johnson’s election, with
religious-right activist Rick Green declaring that Johnson is “one of
our guys.” Right-wing activist Benny Johnson had a lot to be happy
about, as he tweeted:

These are just some of the reasons we need YOU in this
fight. So, find your
favorite way to unwind after reading through our brief recap on the rise
of Speaker Johnson, and then make a plan for how you will fight back THIS
week, this MONTH, this election cycle.

[ [link removed] ]If you’d like to opt-out of this series but still continue receiving
our other email content, you can do so here >>

Thanks for all that you do to defeat Republican extremism.

– People For the American Way

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