Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) said Speaker Mike Johnson should be reelected as House Speaker, noting the Louisiana Republican “inherited a disaster.”
During an appearance on ABC’s “This Week,” host Jonathan Karl asked Lawler whether Johnson would and should be reelected as Speaker.
“Yes, and yes,” he replied. “The fact is that Mike Johnson inherited a disaster when Matt Gaetz and several of my colleagues teamed up with 208 Democrats to remove Kevin McCarthy, which will go down as the single stupidest thing I’ve ever seen in politics.”
Lawler was referencing the chaotic removal of former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in October 2023. The mutiny was led by former Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and came days after the California Republican averted a government shutdown by putting a stopgap measure on the floor that garnered Democratic support — a move that infuriated hard-line Republicans.
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Lawler, who represents a district won by President Biden in 2020 and Vice President Harris in this year’s election, stated that removing Johnson would “equally be as stupid.”