“You can’t have the lights off in the House of Representatives,” Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick told The Bucks County Herald in a puff interview on Wednesday in an attempt to defend his “moderate” branding despite his vote for Republican Mike Johnson as new Speaker of the House. Never mind his two votes for Rep. Jim Jordan.
In addition to wanting to cut Social Security and Medicare, Johnson is also an election-denying, abortion banning, anti-LGBTQ Christian extremist. But that’s apparently okay with Fitzpatrick for someone who he just elevated as second in the line of presidential succession.
“Brian Fitzpatrick’s vote for Mike Johnson shows you exactly who he is: a spineless creature of Washington, who caves to MAGA extremists,” said Democrat Ashley Ehasz, a candidate for Pennsylvania’s First Congressional district. “We can’t trust Fitzpatrick to protect the right to abortion or the right to love who we love when he votes alongside Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene.”
Since the ousting of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a move instigated by members from the GOP’s radical, libertarian-leaning Freedom Caucus, Fitzpatrick voted twice for Republican Jim Jordan of Ohio as well, once for Patrick McHenry of North Carolina versus Jordan, placing a fourth and final vote for Johnson who become Speaker by securing 220 votes from Republicans.
Additionally, Fitzpatrick’s conciliatory explanation of his vote for Johnson is dwarfed by the reality that installing Mike Johnson as House Speaker has substantial national consequences.
“Trump was the only real winner in the three-week D.C. debacle that left the federal government paralyzed in a time of crisis, both foreign and domestic,” wrote national columnist Will Bunch. “His meddling sparked the rise of extreme Christian nationalist, homophobe, and election denier Johnson as Washington’s highest-ranking Republican, now second-in-line for the presidency.”
Fitzpatrick’s vote for Johnson was not well received as evidenced by posts on social media.
“The House is in chaos and our freedom and national security are under attack,” Ehasz added. “This dysfunction will not stop until we vote out politicians like Fitzpatrick and win back the House.”
