“A desperate man with no spine”: Dems rail against Johnson, GOP for Trump courthouse visit

By Michael Jones

It’s an understatement to declare this Congress as unlike most in recent history—both due to its low productivity and in terms of upholding the norms that sustain the institution as the most powerful branch of the US government.

But even with all the remarkable twists and turns I’ve documented in this weekly column, I bet Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) asking a committee chair if calling out Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Ga.) “beach-blonde, bad-built butch body” is appropriate during a committee hearing wasn’t on your bingo card. (Crockett’s inquiry was in response to Greene insulting her personal appearance moments earlier.)

Yet, that’s where we found ourselves last night when the House Oversight Committee assembled in the Rayburn office building to markup a resolution to find Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt for his refusal to provide the committee with the audio from Joe Biden’s special counsel interview in connection with the investigation into whether the president mishandled classified documents.

The hearing wasn’t supposed to be a prime-time affair, though: It was initially scheduled to occur on Thursday morning, but Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) postponed the hearing the evening prior.

He did so not to accommodate votes to extend the Affordable Connectivity Program or reauthorize and expand the expiring compensation fund for victims of past government radiation and atomic bomb testing in Missouri and other parts of the western and southeastern US.

No, the chaotic spectacle was delayed so a group of House conservatives, some of whom serve on Oversight, could make their way to Manhattan to attend former Donald Trump’s New York City hush-money trial.

The rank-and-file members’ trip was the latest in a procession of leading Trump vice presidential candidates and members of Congress, including Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), popping up to delegitimize the proceedings.

“It’s unfortunate that something as important as a trial is being politicized by the Speaker of the House who’s supposed to be speaker of the whole House,” Rep. Yvette Clarke, who represents a neighboring district in Brooklyn, told me. “I wish I could say I expected better from him, but I don’t.”

Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.) didn’t pull any punches in her criticism of the speaker either.

“It was like a desperate man with no spine,” she told me. “It looked like an unrequited girlfriend that was still pining to have a relationship and wanting to do whatever it would take to catch the attention of Donald Trump. It was shameful.”

But the Los Angeles House Democrat said she didn’t think the courtroom visits were a poor reflection of the overall body, which has a record-low approval rating.

“I think it says more about Republicans,” she explained. “They have no real platform. They have no real agenda other than being sycophants to this man who is unfit for public office and certainly unfit to be the president.”

Johnson’s courtroom visit comes as Hill Democrats rail against the speaker for declining to invite President William Ruto of Kenya to speak to a joint meeting of Congress during an official state visit next week. The speaker’s office said last week it couldn’t accommodate the request due to scheduling restraints but offered Kenya a one-on-one visit with Johnson, a bipartisan leadership meeting and a meeting with House members and senators. Two senior House Democrats sent Johnson a letter this morning to ask him to reconsider his decision.

“I think it’s ridiculous for the Speaker of the House to say that we don’t have time to have a joint session with the head of state from Kenya, but they got time to post up in a courtroom in New York for someone who we know is a sexual assaulter and criminal overall. I just don’t understand,” Crockett told me this week. “It’s about where you place your priorities. And if the American people want to pretend as if [Republicans] prioritize the people, just look at what they do—don’t look at what they say.”

Beyond misplaced priorities, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the popular House progressive who also reps a New York district, told me Johnson’s visit cuts to the core of America’s basic structure and the legitimacy of our democracy.

“You have the speaker of the House—the third-most powerful person in the US government—interfering with local judicial proceedings in an unprecedented way,” she said. “It’s unacceptable and a preview of what the American people can expect if Republicans are given an ounce more of power.”

While Johnson’s decision may curry fleeting favor with his right flank and the Republican Party’s presumptive presidential nominee, it’s evaporated most of the goodwill he received from Democrats after he allowed a vote on a then-stalled $95 billion emergency national security package with aid to Ukraine, Israel and other international partners. There’s already informal internal discussions within the caucus about whether members should take into account the speaker cozying up to the former president if another motion to vacate is brought to the floor.

The recent developments have caught the attention of House Democratic leadership as well, who could persuade their members to let Johnson sink or throw him another lifeline if the opportunity arises again.

House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.) told reporters this week that congressional Republicans have little choice but to fully embrace the Trump spectacle.

“It’s disappointing to see someone in that position as Speaker of the House to go up and to speak negatively of independent and criminal investigations is just odd,” he said. “But that’s the price that House Republicans have to pay—and that’s the price, specifically, Speaker Johnson has to pay—to have President Trump have his back.”

House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) told reporters on Thursday afternoon that he hasn’t had an opportunity to discuss with Speaker Johnson the rationale for his visit.

“It is extraordinary that so many extreme MAGA Republicans, who are apparently part of the red-tie brigade, felt the need to bend the knee to the insurrectionist-in-chief, as opposed to staying in Washington and doing the business of the American people.”