Happy Monday and welcome to another week of MAGA Mike Johnson marching in lockstep with Donald Trump by using the People’s House as a personal stage for Trump’s campaign sequel. New reporting uncovered that Johnson wrote the foreword for a 2022 book that promoted several debunked conspiracy theories, including Pizzagate, and used homophobic slurs. Johnson has since doubled down on his support for the book, saying he wouldn’t have written the foreword if he didn’t endorse the claims.
Here’s what MAGA Mike has gotten up to as of this Monday, but let’s be clear: If it’s a day ending in “y,” Johnson is hard at work turning the People’s House into an arm of Trump’s presidential campaign instead of delivering on the issues Americans care about.
DNC National Press Secretary Sarafina Chitika released the following statement:
“MAGA Mike Johnson can’t hide from his past, including his endorsement of outlandish conspiracy theories and slurs. Not only did he endorse a book that includes racist and homophobic passages while giving credence to one of the most inflammatory, dangerous, and ludicrous conspiracy theories peddled under the banner of QAnon – he’s even called the author his “dear friend.” A quick tip for Mike: The normal reaction to these revelations would be embarrassment and condemnation. The more we learn about MAGA Mike, the more the American people realize that the House Republican majority chose an extreme, out-of-touch speaker to lead their chaos conference – a decision that will backfire in 2024.”
New reporting uncovered that Johnson wrote the foreword for a conspiracy-ridden and homophobic book last year – and he has also endorsed the baseless theories on his podcast and social media platforms.
CNN: Speaker of the House Mike Johnson wrote the foreword and publicly promoted a 2022 book that spread baseless and discredited conspiracy theories and used derogatory homophobic insults.
Written by Scott McKay, a local Louisiana politics blogger, the book, “The Revivalist Manifesto,” gives credence to unfounded conspiracy theories often embraced by the far-right – including the “Pizzagate” hoax, which falsely claimed top Democratic officials were involved in a pedophile ring, among other conspiracies.
The book also propagates baseless and inaccurate claims, implying that Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts was subjected to blackmail and connected to the disgraced underage sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Other sections of the book defend podcaster Joe Rogan from racism charges after it was revealed he used the N-word, which Rogan later apologized for. The book also disparages poor voters as “unsophisticated and susceptible to government dependency” and easy to manipulate with “Black Lives Matter ‘defund the police’ pandering.”
Johnson’s endorsement of the book extends beyond the foreword: In 2022, he actively promoted the book on his public social media platforms and even dedicated an episode of his podcast he co-hosts with his wife to hosting McKay.
During the podcast episode, Johnson expressed his belief in the book, stating, “I obviously believe in the product, or I wouldn’t have written the foreword. So I endorse the work.”
In his book, McKay insinuates that hacked emails from Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign chairman John Podesta contained coded references hinting involvement in “child sex trafficking” because of “unexplained references” to “hot dogs and pizza,” resembling alleged code words used by pedophiles.
The book repeatedly disparages Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, calling the former mayor a “queer choice” for the Cabinet position and saying he had “queer sanctimony” and was “openly, and obnoxiously, gay.” At one point, the book labels him “Gay Mayor Pete Buttigieg.”
McKay’s book also shares other unfounded conspiracy theories, including the debunked claim that the Democratic National Committee’s emails in 2016 were not hacked but leaked by a staffer named Seth Rich. In 2020, Rich’s parents settled a lawsuit with Fox News, stemming from the network’s publication of a retracted story connecting their son’s murder to right-wing conspiracy theories. The book denies that carbon dioxide is linked to climate change and frequently mocks the climate crisis as “hysteria.”
The book also spreads a conspiracy theory that the Biden administration deliberately allowed undocumented immigrants into the country to turn them into voters.
The book targets and taunts prominent Democratic officials, including calling Interior Secretary Deb Haaland “half oppressed” because her mother is Native American and father is of Norwegian descent and writes that former President Barack Obama’s “chief selling point was that he was black.”
McKay also adds that the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, a frequent foe of Donald Trump, used his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam “as a political get-out-of-jail-free card.”
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