Dem
47
GOP
53
Sometimes the overt lying becomes so obvious that it is hard to imagine how the liar avoids giggling while doing it, but somehow Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is up to the task. Everyone who is paying attention knows very well that he is refusing to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) because she will be the 218th signature on the discharge petition introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY). Once she signs, the House will have to vote on a resolution to force the Department of Justice to release all the Epstein files. The truly incredible hypocrisy here is that Johnson is saying that his refusal is not at all related to her signature on the petition. Sure, Mike. He claims it is because the House has been having a series of pro forma sessions and members can't be sworn in during pro forma sessions. It isn't that he is disputing her election. He already has an office for her with her name on it. Look:
That means Johnson knows full well that Grijalva is duly elected, and entitled to her seat.
Now here is the hypocrisy part. Members of Congress have been sworn in during pro forma sessions before. The last occasion was on April 2 of this year, with a pair of Republicans who won special elections. Back on April 2, the Speaker of the House was—let us check our notes—Mike Johnson.
So, Johnson has no legal, moral, or other objection to swearing in winners of special elections during pro forma sessions. He's just not willing to do it now. The Speaker has tried to deflect blame by claiming that the real villain here is the Democrats, and that if they would just reopen the government, he'd be delighted to swear Grijalva in. There's so much spin there, you might need to go right now and take a dramamine.
Johnson's game plan is prayer. Lots of it. Praying the problem goes away. He knows that holding a vote will put the Epstein files back front and center. It will also put Republican representatives in a bind. If they vote yes, Donald Trump will be furious with them. If they vote no, their constituents will be furious with them. So the solution is telling baldfaced lies in public and in private praying his little head off that God makes this problem go away somehow. Of course, even the Lord needs help sometimes, so just in case this is one of those instances, Johnson is also putting the full-court press on the three non-Massie Republicans that have signed the petition. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), for one, says that it's the most pressure she's ever been subject to during her time in the House.
The problem, assuming the prayer and the pressure don't work, is that all this obfuscating is making it look like Trump/the Republicans have something to hide. In the case of Dick Nixon, the cover-up was worse than the original crime. Here, the (alleged) original crime is pretty bad, and the cover-up is making it look even more shady. And even if Johnson does somehow triumph and kill the discharge petition, it's not like this is going to go away. Reporters and town hall attendees and other folks will ask about it on a daily basis, all the way through next November. One might argue that it's better to just rip the band-aid off and stop screwing around. (V & Z)