Washington Merry-Go-Round

IMMEDIATE RELEASE 15 November 2025
WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
Today’s Events in Historical Perspective
America’s Longest-Running Column, Founded 1932
His man Johnson
By Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift         
 
WASHINGTON –Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has turned the House of Representatives into a President Trump protection organization. Beneath the quiet exterior, there is a partisan warrior. He is an election denier who still cannot say Biden “won” the 2020 election, and as we move toward next year’s midterms and the GOP’s potential loss of the House, he will be there – or not – in his unassuming way doing Trump’s bidding instead of his job.
He has not asserted congressional prerogatives on tariffs, even though the Constitution clearly states that levying tariffs, like all powers-of-the-purse issues, originate in the House. Instead, he defends the president’s unconstitutional Reign of Tariffs that are alternatively up, down, or off, upending the U.S. and world economies.
He is ignoring both the House’s constitutional war-making power and the 1973 War Powers Act, as Trump, in blatant violation of international law, has the U.S. Navy destroying boats and killing people off the coast of Venezuela instead of boarding and searching them for illegal drugs.
He wields his Toady Power by, among other tactics, keeping the House out of session. He sent the House members home for 50 days, and this primarily for another subservient purpose: suppression of the Epstein files.
He put what remains of his reputation at risk by preventing lawmakers for those 50 days from voting to release the Epstein files. He kept at bay the 218th vote needed for a discharge petition that would force a vote on the legislation. That vote was rendered by Rep Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., whom he finally swore in after being forced to reconvene the House to approve the Continuing Resolution to fund the government and end the shutdown.
Meanwhile, the Epstein matter has taken on a renewed life of its own as Republican and Democratic representatives alike are asking of Trump, Johnson, and their allies, “If there is nothing to hide, why are you hiding it?” This is reminiscent of the famous Watergate Scandal question asked in 1974 by Sen. Howard Baker, R-Tenn.: “What did the president know, and when did he know it?”
The Epstein scandal is not partisan. The powerful men implicated with Epstein’s sex trafficking are not identified solely with one party. Yet Johnson seems to take it as his personal mission to protect President Trump, whose friendship with the late Epstein is not disputed.
There has been a full court press as the White House summoned the normally Trump-loyal Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., to the Situation Room, where Attorney General Bondi and FBI director Katel tried to strongarm her into taking her name off the discharge petition. They failed.
Johnson is now saying there will be a vote to release the files, as a flood of never-before-seen emails related to Epstein are fueling the fire and helping to convince as many as half the Republican caucus, a hundred members, to vote with the Democrats to release the files. Republicans banged the drum for release for years, getting their constituents all worked up, so they cannot suddenly deny there is nothing there and adopt President Trump’s false claim that it is a Democratic hoax.
Whether Johnson knows what is in those files or not, he is doing the bidding of the White House in telling his members that he still expects them to vote no on releasing the files. But in the end, each member is accountable to his or her constituents, and more members than Trump would like are going to put their interests in preserving their seats ahead of any loyalty to him, signaling a potential MAGA implosion.
The mild-mannered Johnson has kept the GOP caucus together, taming the far-right Freedom Caucus that brought down his predecessors. He has a good relationship with Trump because he aims to please and has done what he could to accommodate him on the Epstein scandal, the Reign of Tariffs, the undeclared war on Venezuela, and other issues. What Johnson is not doing is his job.
 
See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).
Twitter:  @douglas_cohn
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END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND