‘Laundry List of Inconsistencies’: MSNBC Panel Flames Speaker Johnson Over ‘Extremely Unpopular’ Views on Abortion and LGBTQ Rights

An MSNBC panel hosted by Nicolle Wallace flamed new GOP Speaker Mike Johnson over his “extremely unpopular” positions regarding abortion, LBGTQ rights, and support for Donald Trump.

Johnson was recently elected by his Republican colleagues after weeks of turmoil following the ouster of Kevin McCarthy from House leadership. Some Democratic lawmakers and pundits have criticized Johnson for his past comments opposing aid to Ukraine, as well as his staunch pro-life positions.

Wallace, while joined by network analysis Tim Miller on Deadline: White House, claimed that Johnson has a “self-righteous laundry list of inconsistencies and at times outright contradiction.” Specifically, Wallace played a soundbite of Johnson clarifying his position on gay marriage where he noted he “loves all people despite their lifestyle choices.”

“Lifestyle choices – 1982 is calling and they want their words back,” Wallace noted. So coming from a guy who voted to decertify the, quote, most secure election in American history, that was a quote from a lifelong Republican because the new speaker’s candidate couldn’t accept that he’d lost. That’s our rule of law guy.”

The host then pointed out how his claims to be in favor of the rule of law do not match up to his defense of Rep. George Santos (R-NY) who faces numerous criminal charges for fraud. Wallace insinuated Johnson would not call for Santos to resign due to the GOP’s thin majority in the House.

Miller concurred and highlighted Johnson’s past support for anti-sodomy laws in Texas:

He has a really long laundry list and track record of policy positions that are extremely unpopular with mainstream America right now. And you listed one of them talking about, I guess, my lifestyle choices. But he’s had a lot of attacks on my lifestyle choices. He wasn’t just opposed to marriage equality. He was writing op-eds and part of a legal team that was trying to fight against the effort on the Lawrence v. Texas Supreme Court case that overturned the Texas law that made sodomy illegal. So gay sex, illegal. So, he was he wanted to criminalize people for gay sex.

He has said he wanted hard labor for anyone in Louisiana that did an abortion. Right. So that is how anti-abortion he is. He’s not just like, oh, I’m a 15-week abortion federal bad guy. No, he’s a no-exceptions, zero weeks. And if you do an abortion, even for a young woman that was raped, you know, a young woman that that, you know, there’s incest, you should the punishment for that should be hard labor.

I mean, these are not popular positions. So he has a lot of explaining to do on that. And I think that on the rule of law point, the one that really stands out, obviously, is his effort to try to overturn the election.

Watch the full clip above via MSNBC.