(Ben Sellers, Headline USA) After formalizing his flip–flop last weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson’s “MAGA Mike” moniker is officially retired, regardless of whether former President Donald Trump continues to defend him.
Indeed, there may be compelling cases to be made in Johnson’s defense, but the proof is in the eating of the pudding. With his predecessor’s Ukraine spending deal finally completed, “McCarthy Mike” is the more fitting label.
Soon enough, we’ll see Johnson passing by in his PJs as Frank Luntz does a Zoom interview from his Penn Quarter penthouse after a late-night paraplegic cocaine orgy at the House of the Temple.
But many are left wondering, what must have gotten to him?
If Johnson—the most unassuming, mild-mannered, pro-Christian conservative—could be compromised into sending some $60+ billion to the country that appointed a “spirit cooking” witch as its minister of education, then clearly something rotten transpired.
THE INTEL SPIN
There is no shortage of reports from the Operation Mockingbird media that present the official narrative for how Johnson came to change his mind: lobbying from Volodymyr Zelenskyy, ex-CIA director Mike Pompeo, current CIA director Bill Burns, and his son’s acceptance into the U.S. Naval Academy.
“I really do believe the intel,” Johnson said, according to the New York Times account. “I think that Vladimir Putin would continue to march through Europe if he were allowed. I think he might go to the Baltics next. I think he might have a showdown with Poland or one of our NATO allies.”
When it comes to classified intelligence, of course, a baby-faced 21-year-old from Discord is now serving at least 11 years for leaking information that showed the Ukraine war is going worse than the government publicly let on, and that the U.S. has boots on the ground, among other things.
President Joe Biden, meanwhile, kept boxes of sensitive classified information, some of which was confirmed to involve matters impacting current national-security concerns, in his garage—and in office space shared with Hunter’s Chinese business partners.
And yet, somehow, the smoking-gun documents that would make the compelling case to the American public about Vladimir Putin’s true intentions remain under lock and key on a need-to-know basis.
‘INTENSE’ PERSUASION
According to the Times and other accounts, an “intense” February meeting at the White House was the turning point.
During that session—which included Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Burns and Johnson—the president reportedly pulled the House speaker aside for a private tête-à-tête.
Knowing the grace and tact with which Biden routinely conducts himself in public and private, that clearly was not the deciding factor. Unless this is what really happened:
Biden and Johnson step into the soundproof Lewinsky Anteroom beside the Oval Office.
Biden pulls off mask.
Johnson: Obama?
Obama: That’s right, Mike. Surprised?
Johnson: Not really.
Obama: Yeah, I get that. Joe’s been gone since 2015. Hillary didn’t take too kindly when he thought about entering the 2016 race. I tried to warn him… Beau found out and got a dart full of Uranium One.
Johnson: Wow. So, are you planning to kill me?
Obama: That’s not how I roll. Except for Breitbart. Couldn’t let those Weather Underground videos get out before the 2012 election. But generally, I prefer the power of persuasion.
Johnson: Well, I’m sorry, but I came to Washington to serve the people. I could make a selfish decision and do something that’s different. But I’m doing here what I believe to be the right thing.
Obama: Interesting. In my experience, everyone has a price. The person I represent has authorized me to allow you to name yours.
Johnson: So if this person has unlimited funding, why doesn’t he just send money to Ukraine himself?
Obama: Ah, there’s the rub. This whole thing isn’t actually about a war. Putin’s in on it too. The laundered money going to Ukraine as part of the unlimited supply printed by the Fed helps us to meet the ever-growing demands for kickbacks and bribes needed to run the world shadow-government.
Johnson: Christ on a cracker! So all of this inflation is the result of greedy globalists? Sorry, but I would never be able to show my face in Shreveport if I caved—especially knowing all that.
Obama: I thought you might say that. Which is why you might want to have a look at these screenshots that Five Eyes intercepted while monitoring social media for Chinese honeytraps.
Johnson: Is that my son?
Obama: Being catfished by a transgender Thaiboy, correct.
Johnson: He just got accepted to Annapolis. This would destroy him.
Obama: So do we have a deal?
Johnson: How much?
Obama: $95 billion for now. And you have to make sure the FISA reauthorization clears.
Johnson: Only if we can ban TikTok…
NOTHING TO HIDE
Although the imagined scenario above may seem far-fetched, it is more plausible than the official explanation we’re being offered for why Johnson threw his constituents and the conservative base under the bus, considering they are the sole reason he is where he is, and that his only mandate was not doing what he did.
Clearly, the problem that Republicans face goes beyond the character of those elected. The problem is what they are going up against in a technocracy so powerful that no elected leader is beyond coercion.
A government that has the unlimited capability to spy on its citizens is bound to collect some form of compromising material that it can use against its elected leaders. Even those who are above reproach will have a weak link somewhere in their family.
Thus, as long as our feckless leaders continue to authorize unlimited domestic spying, the future of politics will increasingly revolve around those who have something to hide.
For Republicans, this means political destruction—a hostile environment that is all but unsurvivable considering the lawfare attacks and other bureaucratic weapons being wielded against them.
For Democrats, the system may rally to protect them, but the selection of leaders will continue to be clownish, shameless and lacking all moral scruples since it is clear they are beholden to a higher authority—and not a religious one.
Only those hand-picked and groomed by the deep state, such as Obama, will appear unscathed since they are the most unscrupulous of all, and there is no perceptible difference between their agenda and the globalist institutions they represent. Eventually, as the technocracy gains more and more power and our collective memories of reality fade, all politicians will be conditioned to fit in this mold, and there will be no further need to gather dirt.
FORGED IN THE FISHBOWL
Both Biden and former President Donald Trump have been public figures since the 1970s and have spent the majority of their lives in a fishbowl. Moreover, both have proven to be impervious to the threats of blackmail that might bring down ordinary individuals.
Biden lost his own wife and daughter in a horrific car crash. His surviving sons spent months in traction, and Hunter was likely scarred for life emotionally.
And yet, when his brother Frank ran over a man in a drunk-driving incident that made two young girls orphans—and then refused to pay the $1 million court-ordered restitution—Joe Biden simply shrugged it off as being none of his business.
Only a true sociopath can pull off that level of compartmentalization.
As for Trump, his greatest political victory, in a sense, may have been what some regard as his lowest moment: the notorious Access Hollywood recording from 2005.
The video is now resurfacing as part of Trump’s Manhattan trial concerning Stormy Daniels’s allegations about a sexual relationship around the same time.
Both cast a dark pall over his first years of marriage to Melania—whom he wed on Jan. 22, 2005—and cast Trump as a bit of a cad during that time. However, that should come as a surprise to exactly nobody, considering that was the persona he had openly spent decades cultivating.
Melania, who had posed nude in photoshoots before marrying Trump, undoubtedly was less surprised by his dalliances with Playboy bunnies and porn stars than with her sudden ascension into history books as the first lady.
Nonetheless, she rose to the occasion to become the classiest and most graceful first lady in modern memory, reshaping the role to fit her many glamourous attributes.
Today's cover: Melania Trump like you've never seen her before https://t.co/wkoDGWTF9g pic.twitter.com/V375rBTUEw
— New York Post (@nypost) July 31, 2016
DON’T OVERESTIMATE THE GOP
Meanwhile, the former first lady who thought she had found her gotcha moment, courtesy of Jeb Bush’s cousin Billy, was in for a rude awakening.
Hillary Clinton’s attempt to smear Trump for sexual lewdness only revealed the stark contrast with her willingness to turn a blind eye toward her own hubby during his presidential scandals.
The Left’s shock of seeing that October surprise fail likely set in motion the much-needed #MeToo house-cleaning that temporarily held predators like Harvey Weinstein accountable. Even Bill Clinton saw his influence within the Democratic Party greatly diminished for a time.
As for Trump, though, it was a trial by fire, from which he emerged all the stronger.
Had he withered and crumbled then, apologizing for the error of his ways and insisting it was not who he was in his heart of hearts, Hillary would have prevailed.
But by taking ownership of it, absorbing it all into the broader picture, he gave Republicans the confidence they needed to hold their noses and vote. The episode itself had not revealed anything new about him, but his handling of it surely did.
It was a lesson, too, to Democrats—that they could not count on their old playbooks, expecting Republicans to vote on their morals and punish leaders at the first sign of scandal.
As counterintuitive as it may seem, the path forward may not be selecting the most morally upright leaders and trusting that their integrity will be their watchword in the bowels of the swamp.
Rather, we must find those with absolutely nothing to lose, whose sole commitment is to the America First agenda, and instill in them the confidence that if they put themselves and their dignity and livelihood on the line, we will stand behind them all the way.
Ben Sellers is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/realbensellers
