Mike Johnson Completely Blindsided by Resignation in His Own Party
Mike Johnson Completely Blindsided by Resignation in His Own Party
House Speaker Mike Johnson had no idea Representative Ken Buck is quitting, as the GOP is in complete shambles.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had no idea Representative Ken Buck is quitting, as the GOP is in complete shambles.
Representative Ken Buck took to social media to announce his near-immediate leave from Congress, resigning so fast that even his party leaders were caught off guard by the decision.
“Today, I am announcing that I will depart Congress at the end of next week,” Buck said in a statement on Tuesday. “I look forward to staying involved in our political process, as well as spending more time in Colorado with my family.”
The less-than-two-weeks notice took practically everybody by surprise, including (or maybe especially) House Speaker Mike Johnson.
“I was surprised by Ken’s announcement,” Johnson told a crush of reporters inside the Capitol building. “I look forward to talking to him about that.”
“I didn’t know,” he added.
“It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I’ve been in Congress,” Buck elaborated to CNN, describing the current iteration of the lower chamber as “dysfunctional” and the “worst year in 40, 50 years.”
“Instead of having decorum, instead of operating in a professional manner, this place has just devolved into this bickering and nonsense and not really doing the job for the American people.”
They buried the lead, as do most American media outlets. Who gives a shit about what Mike "Accountability Partner for his" Johnson thinks? The MAGAt party is collapsing. Report on that!
Local clown claims to be surprised that his fellow clowns can't maintain decorum
"The Freedom Caucus member originally announced his intention to retire in November"
PLUS:
“It is the worst year of the nine years and three months that I’ve been in Congress,” Buck elaborated to CNN, describing the current iteration of the lower chamber as “dysfunctional” and the “worst year in 40, 50 years.”
Member of the Leopards Eating Faces Party swears he never thought the leopard would eat his face.
When I saw Mike Johnson and 'resignation' in the same sentence I got a little excited but it was just Ken Buck, which I'd heard reported earlier that didn't beat around the bush.
I had to reread that headline a few times.
The first way I read it was that Mike Johnson was surprised that he was resigning. Which could be an entertaining conspiracy.
FYI, because I learned this the same way: It's buried the lede. As in the first sentence of the article.
I’m sorry to be this way, but both are acceptable. Lede has never been formally or universally adopted, and is more a remnant of an industry effort toward low-context clarity due to the word being a homonym. There are countless records of journalists using the traditional spelling when using in the context of writing an article.
Again, I hate myself for being like this.
Most if not all media outlets have factored the competitiveness of the presidential horse race into their bottom dollar. The media are the main ones propping them up at this point.
Buck's reason for leaving seems stupid to me (paraphrasing) "I believe our election system is broken so I want to join a group to fix it".
Dude, you're in the legislature!! Introduce legislation changing it!
This is the seat Lauren Boebert is trying to carpetbag her way into.
Boebert could also run to replace Buck in the now-necessary special election, but that would complicate her career even further. Colorado Sun reporter Jesse Paul pointed out that Boebert would likely have to resign her current position in order to be chosen as the GOP special election nominee. If she does and then loses, she would be out of Congress.
Hilarious. Isn't her polling doing pretty badly? More likely she won't be chosen and will either have to defend her current seat, and risk losing, or just quit for the grifter lifestyle.
I don't buy it. Ken "Dipshit" Buck is one of the reasons Congress is dysfunctional. And he already announced that he wasn't running for reelection. He could literally phone it in for the next 9 months, and holding a special election doesn't do him or his party any good.
Maybe they used kompromat to get him to do something he didn't want to do, and he thinks they won't expose him if he resigns? It will be interesting if Boebert resigns to try to win the special election, because then her district will have to hold a special election, too.
Maybe he's trying to give some sort of advantage to a MAGA successor (e.g. by giving him a better shot in a low-turnout special election so that he'd have an "(incumbent)" next to his name during the imminent real one)?
Edit: or maybe it's less about giving an advantage to a particular successor, and more about just screwing over Boebert, who is running for his seat because she knows she's unelectable in hers.
I think it's very likely the GOP is trying to oust bobo. Thought that from the moment Buck announced his departure and she announced a district change. Seems they encouraged her to change, knowing she couldn't win.
Though now I wonder if they want to keep her and think that a low turnout special election would be a safer bet for her.
One less Freedom Caucus member. Good.
I remember when #GetTheBuckOutOfColorado was trending in 2016. Glad he's finally gone.
Not that I'm complaining, but he's technically returning to Colorado. You know. from representing colorado in DC...
Most of them don't actually spend very much time in DC. A lot of them spend half the week back in their districts or more on average.
And the Republican lead in Congress grows more needle thin by the day.
One seat! Good god this is a nailbiter. Will they make it to November?!
It’d be a shame if republicans lose their majority before the elections. Though, democrats would probably be entirely unprepared to take advantage of it.
At least we could be sure they would certify the legitimate results of the presidential election, which is more than we can say of the Republican House.
Sadly democrats have shown time and time again they do not ever take advantage of any majority.
They are paid by donors to be as milquetoast and ineffective as possible.
The faster the #christofascist #GOP dies, the better.
For all his posturing against the horror that is the GOP (which he helped make), anyone else wonder if there's some scandal pushing him out? Knowing the GOP....
That's my bet. He's a toady but he seems like he might be capable of feeling some shame. One of the very few Republicans that I think that about. There are no scandals capable of affecting most of the party.
So who has the blackmail, and what do you think it is?
Mentioned elsewhere that there’s a good chance of criminal charges coming.
God struck him blind for playing with himself
Fuck the republican traitor swine. They must be brought to a reckoning.
What a shambling shitshow the House GOP is.
I guess he couldn't get ahold of him, so he left a voice message on his phone.
He's positively splintered by this move.
Me watching the GOP: