Lawler Supports Johnson for Speaker, Calls Out Republican Rebels

Congressman Mike Lawler (R-Pearl River) said late last week that he will support House Speaker Mike Johnson to retain his role and called out Republican hardliners who have called for Johnson’s ouster as leader.

Speaking late last week on WABC Radio’s Cats & Cosby show, Lawler urged all of his GOP colleagues to put aside petty party differences and confirm Johnson as speaker when the 119^th Congress convenes on Friday.

Lawler, representing all of northern Westchester and Putnam County in the 17^th Congressional District, said that without a unified Republican Party, it may squander a chance to do what they were elected to do.

“This is very simple: Politics boils down to one thing. There are no pure victories,” Lawler said. “It is 50 plus one, and if you don’t have the majority, then you get nothing. You don’t get to govern, and so to me, this is very simple. The American people have given us the majority despite some of the best efforts of some of my colleagues, we were able to keep the majority heading into January.”

Lawler, who will begin his second term when Congress goes back in session, called talk of replacing Johnson perpetrated by “foolish, foolish people that unfortunately continue to misbehave.”

“Mike Johnson has been put in an unenviable position having to walk into a mess that was left behind by Matt Gaetz and seven useful idiots who decided to remove (former speaker) Kevin McCarthy, teaming up with Hakeem Jeffries and all the Democrats,” the congressman said.

“Kevin was a great speaker, but those folks sowed so much chaos,” Lawler continued. “Mike Johnson walked in and he did the job. We got a lot of stuff across the finish line that had to get done, and we won in November and we kept the majority.”

Republicans will have to be nearly unified because of the slim 220-215 advantage they hold in the House. If three Republicans refuse to support Johnson, with Democrats expecting to remain unanimous in their opposition, there will not be enough votes for Johnson. Two years ago, when McCarthy was up for speaker, eight Republicans forced 15 rounds of voting before confirming the former California congressman.

Later in 2023, McCarthy was stripped of his speakership and later resigned from Congress.

Without a speaker, Congress will not be able to certify President Trump’s election next Monday.

On Monday afternoon, Trump’s transition team released a statement indicating that the President-elect endorses Johnson for speaker. Whether that will be enough to sway the group of hardline Republicans may not be known until the end of the week.

“The American people need IMMEDIATE relief from all of the destructive policies of the last Administration,” Trump’s statement concluded. “Speaker Mike Johnson is a good, hard working, religious man. He will do the right thing, and we will continue to WIN. Mike has my Complete & Total endorsement.”

If there is a stalemate, Lawler said it could jeopardize the incoming administration’s agenda because it would “destroy any ability to get what we need to get done on behalf of the American people.”

“I didn’t take all the slings and arrows in my race to fight amongst my colleagues,” Lawler said. “I ran to do something on behalf of the American people, on behalf of my district to address the affordability crisis, to secure our borders, to address the energy crisis that’s impacting this country.

“Some of my colleagues just fundamentally believe that if you don’t get 100 percent of what they want, or 99.999 percent of what they want, then it’s insufficient,” he said. “That’s not the way government works.”

Martin Wilbur

Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/