Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana was elected speaker of the House on Wednesday, which begs the question: who the heck is Mike Johnson?
Besides having the most nondescript name ever, he’s also a “far-right election denier” who was “one of the architects of the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results,” as Seth Meyers pointed out during Late Night on Wednesday.
Meyers has a theory of why Republicans picked the relative unknown: “I think they’re hoping to bore everyone into forgetting how extreme he is.” The New York Times called Johnson “maybe the most conservative speaker in U.S. history” who “closely aligned himself with Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results based on false claims of election fraud.” When a reporter asked him about his failed attempt to do so, a group of Republicans booed her. “Oh grow up,” Meyers said. “You’re booing like a bunch of kids at a production of ‘Paw Patrol on Ice’ when Mayor Humdinger comes out.”
He continued, “Can you imagine having the gall to boo someone for asking a simple question after you paralyzed the government for three weeks of spectacle and humiliating incompetence, where you screamed and yelled at each other like a bunch of street pigeons fighting over a french fry?” Speaking of humiliating incompetence, one of the Republicans doing the booing was Rep. Lauren Boebert. “Do I boo you when you vape and get too handsy at Beetlejuice: The Musical?” Meyers joked. “No, I get an usher, like an adult.”
You can watch the Late Night clip above.