Mike Johnson Is a 'Massive' Gift to Democrats: George Conway

George Conway, a former Republican lawyer, made a sarcastic remark on social media on Saturday about what a "massive" gift newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson is to House Democrats.

Johnson, a Louisiana Republican and constitutional law attorney, was elected as speaker on Wednesday, receiving rare unanimous support from his Republican peers after weeks of turmoil. After Representative Kevin McCarthy of California was removed from the office by a floor vote on a motion to vacate, the House GOP struggled for three weeks to find a candidate who could muster the needed votes from the polarized caucus.

After becoming speaker, Johnson has received criticism from some about his extremely conservative views on religion.

On Saturday, Jennifer Bendery, a senior politics reporter at HuffPost, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that "Mike Johnson's wife runs a counseling service that compares being gay to bestiality and incest. The new House speaker and his wife, Kelly, have long intertwined their political and business lives."

Conway re-posted Bendery's statement and wrote jokingly on X: "Someone should file a complaint with the FEC [Federal Election Commission] because it's clear Mike Johnson is a living, breathing, and massive, unreported in-kind contribution to the Democratic Party."

The lawyer was referring to the fact that Johnson's political views grossly misalign with House Democrats, whose policies support LGBTQ+ rights and women's rights.

Conway is best known for being a critic of Donald Trump, while his now-estranged wife Kellyanne Conway served as a political consultant to the former president. George Conway also helped launch the anti-Trump Lincoln Project organization.

Meanwhile, Bendery explained her statement about the counseling service run by Johnson's wife in a HuffPost article from Friday.

In her article, Bendery wrote that Kelly Johnson runs a company called Onward Christian Counseling Services, which offers Bible-based pastoral counseling. HuffPost obtained a copy of the company's 2017 operating agreement, which states the company's belief that, in God's eyes, sex should only be between a man and woman who are married to each other.

"We believe and the Bible teaches that any form of sexual immorality, such as adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bisexual conduct, bestiality, incest, pornography or any attempt to change one's sex, or disagreement with one's biological sex, is sinful and offensive to God," the agreement said.

The agreement also states that the company is committed to protecting all human life, "from conception through natural death."

According to Bendery, Mike Johnson notarized the agreement; however, notaries are not required to read the documents they sign, and are discouraged from doing so for privacy reasons in some cases.

Newsweek reached out to Mike Johnson's office via email for comment.

Nevertheless, Johnson's conservative Christian views align with his wife's as they talk about social and political issues on their podcast Truth Be Told with Mike & Kelly Johnson.

On Thursday night, Johnson told Fox News' Sean Hannity during an interview: "Go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it―that's my worldview. That's what I believe, and so I make no apologies for it."

The new House speaker also talked about the Supreme Court's 2015 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges, which made marriage between same-sex couples legal nationwide.

Johnson told Hannity the Supreme Court "changed the definition of marriage that had been regarded by basically every human society for 5,000 years, but when five justices on the Supreme Court changed it, that became the law of the land." However, he said that he would not challenge the law.

Update 10/29/23 12:02 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with some additional information.

Correction 10/30/23 6:36 a.m. ET: This article was amended to remove a reference to Donald Trump having served a second term as president.