Speaker Johnson Pulls Closer to Trump  10/31 06:12

   

   HOLLAND, Ohio (AP) -- Wherever House Speaker Mike Johnson goes, Donald 
Trump, seemingly, is not far away.

   At a campaign stop for a House Republican candidate outside of Toledo, 
Johnson held up his cell phone as he has a dozen times before, and started 
filming -- "Hey, Mr. President!" The crowd at the county GOP headquarters a 
couple hundred people deep knew what to do next.

   "Is President Trump going to win Ohio?" They roared.

   As Johnson travels the country trying to save his House Republican majority, 
and his own job as speaker, he has linked ever more tightly to Trump, a once 
uncertain relationship that has become increasingly beneficial to both.

   The speaker is relying on the former president for his own political 
survival in the chaotic House, but also presenting himself as a partner to 
Trump, prepared to potentially challenge the election results, and, if Trump 
retakes the White House, deliver a MAGA agenda in Congress. Trump said over the 
weekend they have a "little secret" for winning, and Johnson, who backed a 
legal challenge to the 2020 election Trump lost, did not contradict him.

   With the presidency and control of Congress at stake, Johnson, who in many 
ways is an accidental House speaker after taking over after Kevin McCarthy was 
ejected in a historic far-right revolt, is uniquely positioned to play a 
central role in both outcomes.

   "We've been working on this assumption all along that we have to make it 
'too big to rig,'" -- and that's not just a slogan," Johnson told The 
Associated Press between campaign stops in Ohio over the weekend.

   If Trump wins, as Johnson expects he will, "this will all be an 
afterthought."

   And if not?

   "We'll sort it out. We're going to follow all the way through."

   It's a remarkable journey for Johnson, 52, a religious-rights lawyer from 
Louisiana, first elected alongside Trump in 2016 and now second in the line of 
succession to the presidency. He celebrated his first year on the job last 
week, before arriving in the Buckeye State, among 230 cities in 40 states he 
has visited since seizing the gavel.

   To hear Johnson tell it, Trump "is the head coach" and "I'll be the 
quarterback," and together they are preparing to run the play on an "ambitious" 
100-day agenda with Republican senators -- cutting taxes, securing the U.S. 
border and taking a "blow torch" to federal regulations -- if they sweep the 
White House and Congress.

   While Johnson did not call out Heritage's Project 2025, he did describe a 
detailed proposal to push the federal agencies out of Washington and restaff 
the federal workforce, pointing to the America First Policy Institute and other 
think tanks with their databases of potential new hires.

   "We're going to be able to bring the federal government to heel," Johnson 
said near Akron.

   Johnson said he and Trump talk all the time about the plans.

   "He's thinking big about his legacy," Johnson said. "He's thinking big about 
what we can do."

   When health care came up days later in Pennsylvania, the speaker said: "No 
Obamacare" -- though he clarified later he was not promising to do away with 
the Affordable Care Act, saying it was "deeply ingrained" in the health care 
system.

   Trump loomed large in Johnson's campaign stops, even in his absence.

   At the Saturday evening event for Republican Derek Merrin who is challenging 
long-serving Democratic Rep. Marcy Kaptur, Johnson said the district that Trump 
carried in the last election provides an opportunity as they work to preserve 
-- or grow -- the GOP's slim majority hold on the House.

   Standing under the fluorescent lights inside the Lucas County Republican 
Party office, Johnson shared a story about how he was telling Trump what a 
great candidate Merrin would be -- "straight out of central casting," he 
quipped, breaking into an impersonation of the former president -- to the 
delight of the crowd.

   Calling himself a "wartime speaker" because of the challenges at home and 
abroad, Johnson presents himself as cheerful and self-effacing, even as he 
portrays the election in the most stark terms.

   "Right now we're not in a battle anymore, just between R's versus D's, it's 
deeper than that. We're in a battle right now between two completely different 
visions," he said.

   "What we're conserving is, first of all, the Judeo Christian foundation of 
our country," he said to applause.

   "Amen!" shouted someone from the crowd.

   Asked later about the role his faith plays in governing at a time of rising 
Christian nationalism, he shrugged off the scrutiny as a sad thing, and said 
he's no different than the founders envisioned for the country's leaders.

   "I think it's comforting to know," he said, that leaders "believe that they 
answer to a higher power than just our civil institutions, right?"

   The next morning, Sunday, Johnson found himself at a brewery, of all places 
-- the afternoon tailgate had to be rescheduled so he could make it to New York 
City on time to speak at Trump's rally at Madison Square Garden.

   Coffee, rather than brews, was flowing, as he stumped for Republican 
candidate Kevin Coughlin who is trying to unseat Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes 
in the Akron area. Adding to the GOP ranks would give Johnson some relief from 
a turbulent House with its slim, difficult-to-govern majority.

   Johnson, who is not a large man, joked that he used to be four inches 
taller, but "the job beat me down."

   It's likely, but not at all certain, that Johnson will have enough support 
from his own ranks to keep his job, if House Republicans retain the majority. 
There are dissenters, especially from the far-right flanks.

   But in the end, Trump may have a final word.