Speaker Mike Johnson was set to become the latest high-profile Republican to make a pilgrimage to the trial of former President Donald Trump on Tuesday.
Johnson, whose job was salvaged with the help of Democrats in the House last week, was looking to bolster his credentials with the MAGA crowd by showing his faith in Trump after Marjorie Taylor Greene tried to oust him from office.
“The speaker volunteered to come today to support his friend, President Trump, and was not proactively invited by the campaign,” an aide to the speaker told The Daily Beast.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I don’t find anything unusual about a fundamentalist theocrat who thinks the Bible is the supreme law of the land attending the legal proceedings of an adjudicated sexual assailant and world-class fraudster and con-man for cooking the books to cover up hush money payments he made to a porn star to conceal his adulterous affair,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) wrote to the Beast. “Do you?”
His fellow Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, also wrote: “Johnson presides over a majority in Congress that sees itself as Trump’s law firm. So it’s on brand that he’s attending his client’s trial. But it’s the American people who we are supposed to be working for. Their needs should come over the childish needs of one petty criminal defendant.”
The trial has become a proving-ground for Republicans to show their loyalty to Trump, who has described the trial as a politically-motivated witch hunt.
The fourth week of testimony in the hush money trial has turned into a full-on veepstakes circus with Vivek Ramaswamy also attending on Tuesday after appearances from Republican Senators J.D. Vance and Tommy Tuberville on Monday.
Ramaswamy walked into court behind Trump with North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Lara Trump, and Congressman Byron Donalds.
Florida Senator Rick Scott accompanied Trump to court last week. Other visitors have included Congresswoman Nicole Malliotakis and attorneys general Steve Marshall from Alabama and Brenna Bird from Iowa.
