House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) traveled to New York City this week to show his support of the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, outside a Manhattan courthouse where Trump faces 34 felony counts for allegedly falsifying business documents to cover up payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels prior to the 2016 presidential election. Daniels says she had a sexual encounter with Trump, which triggered the payments.
Johnson, who is second in line to the presidency, did not go inside the courtroom but spoke to the press outside. The Speaker defended Trump and echoed many oft-repeated MAGA claims including: the trial is a “sham” and the court system is “corrupt.”
Johnson was one among numerous Trump loyalists to show up at court, a list that includes former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), and Senators Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) and J.D. Vance (R-OH).
U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin (D-MD) responded to the show of House Republicans at the courthouse, condemning what he characterized as groupthink and blind fealty: “I think it’s a good thing that they are identifying themselves, the people who have completely allowed Donald Trump to devour their critical thinking skills and their political and moral independence.”
WATCH– @RepRaskin on Republicans flocking to Trump's trial: "I think it's a good thing that they are identifying themselves, the people who have completely allowed Donald Trump to devour their critical thinking skills and their political and moral independence." pic.twitter.com/qyKRlBEyEw
— All In with Chris Hayes (@allinwithchris) May 16, 2024
Raskin criticized Johnson as “one who has said that the Bible is his guiding document” and contrasted those principles with his being obsequious toward Trump, “a guy who is now an adjudicated rapist, an adjudicated fraudster in New York and he’s on trial for cooking the books for lots of money in order to cover up hush money payments to his porn star mistress.”
Raskin added: “Speaker Johnson’s adherence to religion is just a form of political tribalism, it doesn’t have anything to do with religious principle and now he’s showing the whole world that that’s true.”
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