Mike Johnson’s Five Stages of Speakership Grief

When House Republicans crowned Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) their speaker after a chaotic, weeks-long interregnum, the quiet congressman from Louisiana offered Republicans something many craved deeply: unity.

As House Republicans rallied behind Johnson in a closed-door meeting just over 100 days ago, they breathed a collective sigh of relief. The House GOP finally had a leader after former Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s ouster. And Johnson—a bookish, deeply religious, mild-mannered conservative—promised them respite from the infighting they had come to expect from their conference.

On the eve of his ascension, just minutes after Johnson won in a closed-door vote with just Republicans, House GOP members literally stood behind him—projecting a picture of togetherness—cheering on their soon-to-be new speaker as he addressed the press for the first time as the next-man-up.

Read more at The Daily Beast.