Mike Johnson’s New Chief of Staff Has Ties to a Dangerous Far-Right Group

House Speaker Mike Johnson has hired a new chief of staff, and she’s just as extreme as he is.

Ruth Ward worked with Johnson from 2017 to the end of 2022, first as his director of scheduling and then as his director of operations. She left his office in December and joined the conservative Christian lobbying group Family Policy Alliance as its director of government affairs.

Ward was at FPA for more than nine months when Johnson called her back to be his chief of staff. But even in her relatively short time there, she pushed multiple false and dangerous conservative talking points.

In mid-October, Ward wrote a statement for FPA opposing the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s new proposed policy to require that people be addressed by their preferred pronouns in the workplace. Ward somehow accused the EEOC of making it easier for people to sexually harass their colleagues with the policy.

“Harassment should be taken seriously in the workplace. But this proposal only distracts from these goals and puts women, minors in the workplace, and people of conviction and faith at risk,” Ward said in the statement.

Ward also hosted a podcast episode during which her guest said that being asked to call someone by their preferred pronouns “poses some significant problems with respect to the First Amendment of the Constitution.”

“The First Amendment says you have a right to free speech, and that means you cannot be compelled to speak official government orthodoxy with your own lips,” Roger Severino, the vice president of domestic policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told Ward.

Ward has accused the government of “trans-ing children,” or forcing kids to transition. She has insisted that babies can be “born alive” during abortions, which is not true and medically inaccurate. She has also urged pharmacies not to dispense the abortion medication mifepristone, saying it was a “health and safety threat to women and their children.” There have been hundreds of studies proving mifepristone is safe to take. Ward also called pregnancy resource centers an “irreplaceable part of our community.” In reality, crisis pregnancy centers are clinics set up to pressure people not to get abortions.

The New Republic contacted Johnson’s office for comment, but they had not responded by the time of publication.

It’s unsurprising that Johnson called Ward back to lead his team. They appear to share many of the same values: Johnson opposes abortion and openly espouses Christian nationalist beliefs. Johnson also blatantly rejects expressions of LGBTQ gender identity. Before entering politics, he worked with a group that promotes conversion therapy and the criminalization of gay sex, and Johnson even blamed sexual orientation for the fall of the Roman Empire.

When Johnson tapped Ward for his new chief of staff, the FPA congratulated her in a statement.

“We look forward to working with her and Speaker Johnson in the days ahead to advance social conservative values in this Congress,” FPA President Craig DeRoche said.

The FPA actively promotes conversion therapy, which it describes as “basic talk therapy to resolve unwanted same-sex attraction.” The organization insists that conversion therapy is “nothing more than traditional counseling methods,” and has warned the government will take your child away just because you tried to help them get rid of these unwanted feelings.

In reality, conversion therapy is a dangerous practice that can involve “violent role play, reenactment of past abuses, and exercises involving nudity and intimate touching,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. It has been “discredited by virtually all major American medical, psychiatric, psychological, and professional counseling organizations.”

The FPA has helped successfully block bans on conversion therapy in nearly half the country.

Now that Ward leads his staff, groups such as the FPA will have a direct line to Johnson. And given Johnson’s own background, it’s highly likely that he will be only too happy to listen.

Facebook parent company Meta is allowing political ads on its platforms that promote the false belief that the 2020 election was rigged, a move that could destroy the upcoming vote in 2024.

A Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday revealed that Meta actually made the change in 2022. Facebook and Instagram will now allow political ads that say past elections were “rigged” or “stolen,” although they are not allowed to claim that ongoing or upcoming elections are fraudulent.

Meta executives “made the decision based on free-speech considerations after weighing past U.S. elections in which the results might have been contested by a portion of the electorate,” the Journal reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the move.

The main vote in question is the 2020 election, which former President Donald Trump insists he won. The problem, of course, is that while a portion of the electorate may have contested the vote, there was absolutely no fraud found whatsoever.

Trump and his allies repeatedly contested the 2020 results, filing legal challenges and demanding recounts in battleground states. Every lawsuit was ultimately dismissed, and none of the recounts found any issues with the results.

Meta’s decision means that politicians will be able to straight-up lie to voters on two of the most popular social media platforms. Trump has already taken advantage of the policy change. In August, he ran a campaign ad on Facebook that claimed, “We won in 2016. We had a rigged election in 2020 but got more votes than any sitting president.”

Both of his claims in the second sentence have been disproven multiple times. But this ad was in line with Meta’s new policy.

It should go without saying that Meta’s decision is dangerous. Hiding behind the justification of “free speech” does not change that. Completely unmoderated free speech causes a rush of disinformation, which many people are only too happy to believe.

That disinformation can lead to very real offline consequences, from politically motivated violence to the installation of an authoritarian government. And Meta is apparently willing to help contribute to that.

It’s never too late to learn civics—even if you’re antagonizing other members of Congress on the House floor, apparently. Shortly after a vote on the House’s stopgap spending bill, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene got another awkward lesson about the U.S. political system.

“My Democratic colleague across the aisle who is 80 years old and has been here over 30 years just said we’re on the verge of a shutdown,” Greene said, taking a jab at Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro.

“She probably just forgot that a few hours ago she voted for the continuing resolution that will extend the budget, and we are not on the verge of a shutdown,” Greene added.

But DeLauro didn’t take the provocation lying down, instead taking the opportunity to educate the Georgia lawmaker that there is another half of Congress that will exercise its own judgment over the stopgap bill—with just three days before the government is scheduled to shut down.

“It may be that the gentlelady doesn’t know that there is another body attached to the U.S. Congress called the United States Senate, and they have to vote on the continuing resolution,” DeLauro whipped back. “And when they vote on it, we’ll find out what it is that they do with regard to this continuing resolution passed by the House, which quite frankly is flawed to a fare thee well.”

House Republicans spent the better part of October ousting their own speaker and subsequently wasting weeks trying to find a replacement, rather than working to prevent the looming government shutdown.

DeLauro then went on to argue the current spending bill, proposed by the House GOP, fails to meet U.S. obligations “both domestic and international.”

“And by the way, there isn’t a law of the land until the president of the United States signs it. That may be a basic lesson in civics. There is the House, there is the Senate, and there is the president,” DeLauro quipped.

Greene was also fact-checked earlier this month when she lumped Confederate General Robert E. Lee into her defense of a bill that would prevent the removal of federal statues and monuments depicting the Founding Fathers.

Ukraine’s Security Service notified Rudy Giuliani’s top Ukrainian allies on Monday that they are suspects of treason, citing evidence that the officials participated in activities aiding Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Ukrainian member of parliament, Oleksandr Dubinsky, ex-Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach, and ex-prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk are suspected of joining an organization founded by chief members of Russia’s Military Intelligence while Giuliani worked to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in 2019, according to a statement.

The organization received more than $10 million from the Russian Federation to “discredit” Ukraine on the international stage.

“It is established that on the instructions of the Russian special services, it organized events to discredit the image of Ukraine in the international arena in order to worsen diplomatic relations with the United States and complicate Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO,” the State Investigative Bureau said in a statement.

Dubinsky, who is also suspected of spreading misinformation about Ukraine’s political leadership, will be detained for 60 days, or until January 12, 2024, reported Reuters. Dubinsky was not named in the charging document but was identified as the subject of the remand by other lawmakers, according to the outlet.

Giuliani met with Dubinsky and Derkach in Kyiv in December 2019 as part of his “documentary series” with One America News Network on election meddling, hoping to discredit the presidential election results.

A former Ukrainian presidential adviser, Igor Novikov, told Time in 2021 that he believed “Mayor Giuliani’s actions in Ukraine threatened our national security” and that the country should not allow efforts to “drag our country into our allies’ domestic politics” to go “unpunished.”

Giuliani and Trump have both pleaded not guilty in the criminal trial charging them and 16 others with attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

Representative James Comer had a complete meltdown Tuesday when asked about loans he appears to have given his brother.

Comer has insisted for months that Joe Biden is guilty of corruption, most recently citing a check the president gave his brother Jim Biden in 2018. But last week, a Daily Beast report revealed that Comer and his own brother have engaged in multiple land swaps over the years through family-owned businesses that do not appear to actually exist.

When Democratic Representative Jared Moskowitz asked Comer about the loans during a House hearing Tuesday, Comer grew incensed.

“I’ve never loaned my brother one penny,” Comer said, calling the story “completely false.”

Comer also said it was “bullshit” that the story said he owned a shell company. As he continued to deny that he had loaned his brother money or that his family had engaged in shady business dealings, he grew more heated.

“You look like a Smurf here, just going around and stuff!” he yelled at Moskowitz. “You continue to spew disinformation!”

As Moskowitz shouted questions, specifically why voters should believe Comer, the Kentucky Republican yelled over him. He told the Democrat to go to Comer’s district and see all the land Comer owns for himself.

At one point, Comer said, “You’ve already been proven a liar, Mr. Moskowitz!”

“Who’s proven me a liar—you? Your word means nothing!” Moskowitz shot back.

Moskowitz then challenged Comer to sit for a deposition about the loan. Comer said he would be happy to sit down with Hunter and Jim Biden.

Before the hearing returned to its original agenda, Moskowitz delivered a parting shot.

“We believe everything in the media, like when you go on Fox News and say things—and everyone says that they’re true—with innuendos and ifs and maybes, the Biden family, the crime family, all this nonsense,” he said. “But when it happens to you, it’s fake news.”

“There should be the same standard. You said at the beginning of this year, the Biden administration can’t have it both ways. Neither can you, Mr. Chairman!”

A fight nearly broke out during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, committee hearing on Tuesday after Senator Markwayne Mullin read aloud a union boss’s tweet snubbing the freshman Oklahoma congressman as a “clown” and a “fraud.”

“Sir, this is a time, this is a place, if you want to run your mouth we can be two consenting adults and finish it here,” Mullin said.

“OK, that’s fine. Perfect,” responded International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien.

“You want to do it now?” Mullin asked. “Stand your butt up then.”

“You stand your butt up, big guy,” retorted O’Brien.

Senator Bernie Sanders narrowly defused the fight after Mullin rose out of his chair, slamming his gavel while calling the committee to order.

“You’re a United States senator, sit down,” boomed Sanders. “This is a hearing. God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress.”

Moments later, the senator posted a photo of himself before a table of guns, captioned, “Let’s do it. Anyplace, anytime.”

A far-right evangelical pastor is scheduled to take the stage at Tuesday’s “March for Israel” rally on Washington’s National Mall, despite a history of controversial remarks that include claiming Jews were responsible for the Holocaust.

Tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected to attend alongside televangelist Pastor John Hagee, a reputed antisemite, including numerous politicians from both sides of the aisle like House Speaker Mike Johnson, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, as well as Israel’s President Isaac Herzog.

“I am horrified that he was given this platform,” said Hadar Susskind, president and CEO of Americans for Peace Now. “His history of hateful comments should disqualify him from decent company, much less from speaking on stage. He is not welcome and should not speak.”

Previously, Hagee claimed that Hitler came from a lineage of “accursed, genocidally murderous half-breed Jews” and suggested that it was Jews’ “disobedience” toward God that led to their persecution.

Such comments were enough to sour public opinion on Hagee in the past. In 2008, GOP presidential nominee Senator John McCain ultimately shirked Hagee’s endorsement after reports emerged that the minister believed Adolf Hitler had fulfilled God’s will by becoming a “hunter,” driving Jews back to Israel.

“‘Behold, I will send for many fishers, and after that I will send for many hunters. And they the hunters shall hunt them,’” Hagee said during a sermon, referring to Jeremiah 16:16. “That would be the Jews.… Then God sent a hunter. A hunter is someone who comes with a gun, and he forces you. Hitler was a hunter,” Hagee said, according to a transcript of his sermon.

McCain subsequently called the comments “deeply offensive and indefensible.”

The war between Israel and Hamas is now in its sixth week. Gaza’s Health Ministry has reported that more than 11,100 Palestinians have been killed in the conflict so far—or one out of every 200 people—with most of the dead being women and children. Approximately 240 hostages still remain in Gaza after Hamas militants attacked a music festival in southern Israel on October 7, killing 1,200 people.

Republican infighting is so bad that lawmakers are getting into physical altercations in the halls of Congress.

NPR reporter Claudia Grisales tweeted Tuesday that while she was talking to Representative Tim Burchett after the Republican conference meeting, Kevin McCarthy walked past. As he walked behind Burchett, McCarthy shoved the Tennessee lawmaker, forcing him to lunge forward.

Grisales noted that she has “NEVER seen this on Capitol Hill” and said that both she and Burchett were stunned. Burchett called McCarthy a “jerk” and said he had never done anything like that before, before chasing after the former House speaker.

“Hey Kevin, why’d you walk behind me and elbow me in the back?” Burchett demanded when he caught up.

McCarthy denied elbowing him, and Burchett shot back, “You got no guts, you did so.… The reporter said it right there, what kind of chicken move is that? You’re pathetic, man, you are so pathetic.”

Burchett told Grisales it was his first interaction with McCarthy since voting to oust the California lawmaker as speaker. Burchett called McCarthy a “jerk” several more times and also called him “childish.”

“He’s on a downhill spiral,” Burchett said. “That was pretty gutless of him. I’m disappointed in him.”

Burchett was one of eight Republicans who voted in early October to boot McCarthy from the speakership. Tension was already running high within the GOP, and vacating the speaker clearly did nothing to improve intraparty relationships.

Ironically, Burchett had warned in July that “a fistfight could break out at any moment.”

He told The Daily Beast that, as a fan of professional wrestling, “it’s entertaining to think that a fistfight could break out at any movement. I kind of dig that.”

At the time, Burchett was talking about tension between Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. But it looks like he still got his wish, in a way.

A former Justice Department official believes that a note torn up by Donald Trump before the January 6, 2021, insurrection “absolutely” proves the former president’s intent to overthrow the 2020 presidential election results.

In the weeks immediately preceding the January 6 insurrection, Trump’s first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, took to Newsmax, claiming that Trump could “take military capabilities” and “rerun an election” in key swing states that he lost.

But much to Trump’s chagrin, the military didn’t see it that way.

“There’s no role for the U.S. military in determining the outcome of an American election,” read a joint statement issued by Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy and Chief of Staff of the Army James McConville.

Personnel Chief John McEntee, tasked with rooting out obstructive staffers, then passed a note along to Trump.

“Chris Miller spoke to both of them and anticipates no more statements coming out,” McEntee wrote, referring to the administration’s defense secretary. “(If another happens, he will fire them).”

Hours later, Trump would tweet a call to action to his supporters, asking them to join him in D.C. on January 6.

“Big protest in D.C. on January 6,” he posted in late December. “Be there, will be wild!”

McEntee’s note, torn up by the former president but reconstructed, was collected as part of the House January 6 Committee’s investigation and now appears in the pages of ABC News journalist Jonathan Karl’s latest book, Tired of Winning: Donald Trump and the End of the Grand Old Party.

“Doesn’t that get right at his intent of what he wanted them to do?” asked MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace.

“Absolutely,” responded Andrew Weissmann, an attorney and former official at the Justice Department.

“My general experience when I was in the government is that the military is incredibly law-abiding and really stands for the rule of law,” said Weissmann.

“As much as you think of it as a military organization with a hierarchy, they are also trained that they do not violate the Constitution. And when there’s an invalid order, they know that they cannot follow it because the Constitution comes first,” Weissmann noted, adding that the note is another example of Trump “brushing up” against a “guardrail.”

That detail could be key to special counsel Jack Smith’s case against the former president, in which Trump is charged with four felonies for disrupting Congress’s certification of the Electoral College results, conspiring to defraud the United States, and depriving U.S. citizens’ right to vote.

A city in Tennessee is using a recently passed ordinance essentially prohibiting homosexuality in public to try to ban library books that might violate the new rules.

Murfreesboro passed an ordinance in June banning “indecent behavior,” including “indecent exposure, public indecency, lewd behavior, nudity or sexual conduct.” As journalist Erin Reed first reported, this ordinance specifically mentions Section 21-72 of the city code. The city code states that sexual conduct includes homosexuality.

Anyone who violates the new ordinance is barred from hosting public events or selling goods and services at public events for two years. Anyone who violates the ordinance “in the presence of minors” is barred for five years.

An ACLU-backed challenge to the ordinance has already been launched, but that hasn’t stopped city officials from implementing the measure. Last Monday, the Rutherford County steering committee met to discuss removing all books that might potentially violate the ordinance from the public library. The resolution was met with widespread outcry from city residents.

“When have the people who ban books ever been the good guys?” local activist Keri Lambert demanded during the Monday county meeting.

Murfreesboro city officials have already used the ordinance to ban four books that discuss LGBTQ themes. In August, the county library board pulled the books Flamer, Let’s Talk About It, Queerfully and Wonderfully Made, and This Book Is Gay.

The board also implemented a new library card system that categorizes books into certain age groups. When it takes effect next year, children and teenagers will only be able to check out books that correspond to their age group; they will need permission from a parent or guardian to check out “adult” books.

Library director Rita Shacklett worried in August that the new rules would prevent students from accessing books they need for a class. She explained that many classic high school books, such as To Kill a Mockingbird, are now classified as “adult.”

It’s unclear if the county steering committee plans to pull books such as the A Song of Ice and Fire series, which includes multiple depictions of heterosexual sexual conduct.

Murfreesboro’s new ordinance is part of a much larger wave of attacks on LGBTQ rights in Tennessee and the rest of the country. In the past year, the so-called Volunteer State became the first state to try to ban drag performances. That law was overturned in court.

In March, the Tennessee House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow people to refuse to perform a marriage if they disagree with it, essentially gutting marriage equality. The bill was introduced in the Senate but deferred until next year.