"You know, we don't live in a democracy" but a "biblical" republic.
That's what Mike Johnson said in a 2016 interview as he explained his views on the U.S. government.
That's what the new Republican House speaker, who tried to overturn the will of the voters in 2020, believes.
Mike Johnson in 2016: "What’s happened, Alex, over the last 60 or 70 years, is that our generation has been convinced that there is a separation of church and state. Most people think that that’s part of the Constitution, but it’s not.”
(It is: See The Establishment Clause).
Two things you should be clear about Speaker Mike Johnson:
1) He's not some Republican pandering to the extreme religious right and Christian dominionists; he's a true believer.
2) He's not some ignorant yahoo. He's very intelligent and serious about writing his views into law.
Mike Johnson was a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom, the Christian-dominionist-aligned far-right legal group that, among other things, wrote the Mississippi law at the center of the Dobbs case with the intention of using it to overturn Roe v. Wade. mississippifreepress.org/20042/to-rule-…
The ADF's tax filings said its goal was to "inspire a distinctly Christian worldview in every area of law, and particularly in the areas of public policy and religious liberty."
@MSFreePress In 2003, Mike Johnson wrote that states should have the right not only to criminalize gay sex, but other sexual "deviancy"—like "the evils of sexual conduct outside marriage."
Mike Johnson doesn't just pander to Christian dominionists. He's one of them.
@bayoubrief @FredClarkson on dominionists: "If people are serious about their beliefs they find ways to act on them. And I think one of the failures of our society is that these folks were not taken seriously, and they’ve been able to fly underneath the radar.”
When Mike Johnson says he believes God raises up the people in authority, you should absolutely believe him and absolutely understand he believes he was chosen by God for this job.
Be sure to follow @MSFreePress and read how Christian dominionists and the ADF—which Mike Johnson worked for—engineered the legislation, the appointment of judges and the court case that overturned Roe v. Wade.
Kamala Harris will accept the Democratic nomination 60 years to the day after Fannie Lou Hamer—a Black woman and sharecropper from rural Mississippi—rattled the DNC with her "Is This America?" speech about being brutalized for trying to register to vote. mississippifreepress.org/kamala-harris-…
Fannie Lou Hamer, who helped organize Freedom Summer to register and educate Black voters, was one of the leaders of the Mississippi Democratic Freedom Party who traveled to the 1964 DNC in New Jersey to challenge the state's all-white delegation. mississippifreepress.org/kamala-harris-…
Fannie Lou Hamer was also an advocate for bodily autonomy.
A white doctor had performed a hysterectomy on her while removing a tumor in 1961.
NEW: After discovering that some officials in Mississippi and nationwide were keeping unidentified bodies for "personal collections" and refusing to return them, Pascagoula Lt. Darren Versiga began pushing for a law to regulate how remains are handled. mississippifreepress.org/40991/cold-cas…
Lt. Versiga told @Shaunicy_ that he uncovered the problems when he began looking into decades worth of unsolved cold cases in Pascagoula.
@Shaunicy_ Lt. Versiga also said the bill, introduced by Sen. Brice Wiggins, could also help prevent cases where counties bury bodies without ever informing families of a loved ones' death—as happened to at least seven families in Hinds County. mississippifreepress.org/38668/mothers-…
NEW: The Mississippi Senate stripped out the House Medicaid expansion bill and replaced it with one that could cost the State millions more while covering less people.
Sen. Kevin Blackwell estimates that 80,000 Mississippians would qualify for Medicaid coverage under the Senate plan, but said he expects as few as 40,000 may actually enroll—significantly lower than the House’s estimation of up to 200,000 for its version. mississippifreepress.org/40893/senate-m…
The House plan includes full Medicaid expansion under the ACA, allowing residents who make up to 138% of the federal poverty level ($20,120 for an individual) to qualify. The Senate plan only allows people making up to 100% (~$15k) to qualify. mississippifreepress.org/40893/senate-m…
To quote Taylor herself reflecting on her eating disorder:
“If you’re thin enough, then you don’t have that ass that everybody wants. But if you have enough weight on you to have an ass, your stomach isn’t flat enough. It’s all just f—ing impossible.” variety.com/2020/music/new…
Here's how people reacted after she stopped starving herself (yes, she really did that).
"'No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage [Russia] to do whatever the hell they want,” Trump said, recalling a conversation with an American ally's president. mississippifreepress.org/39734/trump-en…
You can support our work by following @MSFreePress.
As a nonprofit newsroom, our journalism is always free to anyone to read, but we do rely on support from our readers to grow and do this work.
NEW: Brett Favre was interrogated by state attorneys for nine hours Monday during a secret deposition about the Mississippi welfare scandal and the millions in TANF funds that went to him, a volleyball stadium and a drug company he was heavily invested in. mississippifreepress.org/38290/brett-fa…
Favre's deposition was originally scheduled for October, but the State rescheduled it for after the statewide elections.
Hattiesburg Patriot's Tom Garmon found out about the deposition's secret location and staked it out. Clip courtesy @HPatriot mississippifreepress.org/38290/brett-fa…
It is unlikely that the transcript will become public anytime soon. In October, a judge agreed to a request from the State, Favre and other defendants to issue a protective order sealing certain discovery documents—like deposition transcript.