NC congresswoman tells reporter to shut up at House GOP news conference | Opinion
House Republicans seemed to be in a pretty good mood after nominating Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson to be their next speaker — their fourth nominee in three weeks. They gleefully clustered around Johnson at a news conference Tuesday night, buzzing with genuine optimism at the possibility that their speaker stalemate might finally be over.
But then ABC News reporter Rachel Scott dared to ask a completely legitimate question.
“Mr. Johnson, you helped lead the efforts to overturn the 2020 election results,” Scott began. “Do you stand by —”
The Republicans interrupted Scott’s question, booing and jeering. They said things like “oh, God” and “go away!” They asked to move on to the next question. And Rep. Virginia Foxx of North Carolina shouted, “Shut up! Shut up!”
Shut up? Seriously? That’s unbecoming of a member of Congress, and of anyone, really.
It was a perfectly valid question, especially at … a news conference. Johnson is a staunch Trump ally who helped spearhead election-denying efforts in 2020, and that’s something that Republicans should have to answer for. He lobbied fellow House Republicans to support the Texas lawsuit seeking to invalidate election results in key states, and to vote against the certification of the electoral count on Jan. 6. A New York Times article from 2022 called Johnson “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections.” It’s something that Johnson, too, should have to explain if he is to become one of the most powerful politicians in the country.
The reporter must have hit a nerve. Republicans don’t want to talk about their behavior in 2020, because they know it was unacceptable. They refuse to be held accountable for it. So determined are they to avoid the subject that they heckle reporters who dare to bring it up. They know the answer makes them look bad, and they’re scared of what will happen if voters are reminded of who they are. More importantly, they don’t want to scorn their leader, Donald Trump, and the loyal GOP base who supports him. So the best they have to offer is “shut up.”
When I asked whether Foxx believes that questions about 2020 are inappropriate, her office did not respond to my request for comment. Foxx and many of her colleagues from North Carolina were among the 147 Republicans who objected to the certification of electoral votes on Jan. 6. At the time, she said she was merely “taking a stand to defend the Constitution.” Yeah, right.
The entire exchange was frighteningly dystopian, but it encapsulates exactly what today’s Republican Party has become. Juvenile and contemptuous, sneering and laughing about the fact that they are single-handedly dismantling democracy. They just can’t take anything seriously.
This story was originally published October 25, 2023 at 12:33 PM.
