Well that starts off things with a bang.
The new Speaker Mike Johnson held his first press conference in his new job and….
Here’s the headline from Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/media/
House Republicans jeer reporter, tell her to ‘shut up’ and ‘go away’ during Mike Johnson presser GOP congressman dismissed both of Scott’s questions during the press conference held to announce Rep. Mike Johnson’s nomination for House Speaker
Fox reports:
“GOP representatives jeered a reporter on Tuesday during a press conference for Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La., after he was nominated for the House Speakership.
During the presser, ABC News reporter Rachel Scott asked Johnson about what she called his effort to “overturn” the 2020 presidential election results, eliciting a torrent of boos and one “Shut up!” from the GOP lawmakers assembled around the nominee.
She also asked if Johnson would support more aid for Israel and Ukraine if elected speaker, which prompted another stiff rebuke from the lawmakers, who dismissed her, stating she had already asked another question.
The exchange happened Tuesday after House Republicans nominated Johnson to be Speaker of the House, the fourth candidate to be voted on since Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., was ousted from the position earlier this month.
Several minutes into the press conference – after Johnson expressed confidence in being elected to the speakership and declared that House Republicans are ‘united’ in the decision – Scott asked, ‘Mr. Johnson, you helped lead the efforts to help overturn the 2020 election results, do you–?’
The reporter was immediately cut off by the groans of the lawmakers who appeared exasperated by the question. Several of them yelled, ‘Boo!’ Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., could be heard stating, ‘Oh gosh,’ and Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., exclaimed, ‘Shut up! Shut up!’
Johnson only replied, ‘Next question,’ and answered another reporter’s query about the upcoming floor vote on his bid.
Scott attempted to get one more question in before the event’s end, asking, ‘Ukraine & Israel – do you support additional aid to Ukraine and Israel–?’
Boebert interjected, declaring, ‘You’ve asked your question.’ Foxx added, ‘You asked your question. Go away. Go away.’”
Ya gotta love this.
The new Speaker is barely sworn in and the ABC correspondent wants to drag in the 2020 election all over again. And it is no rocket science to understand that Ms. ABC would get exactly the response she got – and didn’t understand that it would shut her out of the second question, a decidedly legit question about the state of aid to Ukraine and Israel.
Having been a press secretary to both a congressman and senator myself, there is a decided sense in the Capitol press corps of how to act to get answers to serious questions – and not play “gotcha”, which it clearly seems is what Ms. Scott was about.
One can only shake one’s head.