Schumer says Johnson will fail if he fulfills ‘MAGA Mike’ moniker

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said newly-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will not succeed in his new role if he fulfills the “MAGA Mike” nickname given to him by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.).

“If Speaker Johnson repeats the mistakes of Speaker McCarthy, if he tumbles down the MAGA road, it will be inevitable that the House finds itself trapped in even more chaos very soon,” Schumer said in a floor speech Thursday. “If Speaker Johnson lives up to the label that Congressman Gaetz has given him, MAGA Mike, he will fail as the previous Speakers have.”

In his speech, Schumer congratulated Johnson on being elected Speaker and urged him to find a bipartisan path forward. He warned Johnson against “coddling the hard right,” saying doing so would be “disastrous both for the country and for the Republican leadership.”

“I told Speaker Johnson the exact same thing I told Speaker McCarthy: In a divided government, the only way we will avoid a shutdown, fund the government, or pass the supplemental is bipartisanship,” he said.

Congress has a little more than three weeks to approve funding the government to avoid a government shutdown.

Johnson was elected to the Speakership in a Wednesday vote after the House was left without a Speaker for three weeks. Gaetz spearheaded the effort to oust former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from the top post earlier this month and has since said it was “worth it” so the House could get Johnson.

Gaetz told talk show host and former Donald Trump adviser Steve Bannon during an appearance on his show Wednesday that Johnson’s election as Speaker is an example of the “MAGA movement.”

“The swamp is on the run, MAGA is ascendant, and if you don’t think that moving from Kevin McCarthy to MAGA Mike Johnson shows the ascendance of this movement, and where the power of the Republican Party truly lies, then you’re not paying attention,” Gaetz said.