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U.S. Rep. DeLauro: "Elections have consequences."
“An anti-democracy zealot” committed to slashing social welfare and rolling back rights for gay people and women has risen to the highest rank of the U.S. House of Representatives.
A man “prepared to foist his religious beliefs on everyone else.”
So reported U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro on the recent election of ultra-conservative Mike Johnson as the next Speaker of the House.
DeLauro offered that assessment Saturday morning during a Democratic get-out-the-vote rally on Whalley Avenue in the runup to Nov. 7’s municipal elections.
DeLauro, like every other speaker on Saturday’s lineup, urged the roughly 50 party faithful before her to reelect Mayor Justin Elicker and vote yes on the charter revision proposal that would grant the mayor and alders four-year terms.
Also like every one else who took the mic on Saturday, DeLauro lifted up the Democratic Party as fighters for the wellbeing of working people, and criticized the Republican Party — local and national — as dysfunctional and uninterested in governing.
Unlike her fellow speakers on Saturday, DeLauro was able to give the crowd of New Haven Democrats a firsthand take on what that dysfunction has looked like in the highest halls of political power in Washington, D.C.
Ever since a cadre of hard-right House Republicans joined Democrats in ousting Kevin McCarthy as speaker on Oct. 3, DeLauro said, the chamber has been mired in “a month of chaos.” It’s been unable to pass needed federal government spending bills around transportation and housing and so much more. It’s been unable to direct military aid to U.S. allies at war in Ukraine and Israel.
Now, after three different speaker hopefuls tried and failed and tried and failed to get the gavel, “we have elected a speaker of the House who is as far right as you can possibly imagine.”
That new House leader is Mike Johnson, a fourth-term congressional representative from Louisiana and former chairman of the Republican Study Committee who emerged victorious last Wednesday after House Republicans unified behind his leadership candidacy. He’s now second in line to the presidency if something were to happen to Joe Biden.
Johnson, DeLauro warned, is committed to slashing Medicare and cutting Social Security. He “voted against veterans getting healthcare.” He was a key congressional supporter of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. He has spoken out about criminalizing gay sex and imposing a national ban on abortion.
DeLauro’s lesson from this “month of chaos” and Johnson’s sudden, surprise ascension to the role of speaker?
“Elections have consequences.”
More like Speaker of the House of Saud.