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The introduction to a 2022 book, written by Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, contained unfounded and disproven conspiracy theories and derogatory remarks towards the LGBTQ+ community.
According to CNN, the Louisiana legislator not only wrote the foreword, but also actively advertised Scott McKay’s book.
The speaker promoted the book on social media and even devoted an entire podcast episode to it.
The Revivalist Manifesto incorporates conspiracies commonly advocated by the extreme conservative movement, such as the notorious and debunked “Pizzagate” hoax involving a supposed high-level pedophile network in Washington DC, and the baseless theory that the Democratic National Committee’s emails were not hacked in 2016 but rather leaked by an employee named Seth Rich.
The parents of Mr. Rich reached a settlement with Fox News regarding a story linking their son’s murder to right-wing conspiracies.
The book also asserts that Chief Justice John Roberts of the Supreme Court was extorted in relation to the deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. It also defends podcaster Joe Rogan against accusations of racism for his use of the N-word, which he has since apologized for. Additionally, it suggests that low-income voters are easily influenced by government dependency and can be manipulated through the “defund the police” messaging of the Black Lives Matter movement.
The book frequently uses derogatory language towards current Transportation Secretary and former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, using homophobic remarks.
The ex-mayor is labeled as an unconventional pick for the Biden Cabinet and the writer describes him as having a “peculiar self-righteousness” and being “overtly, and irritatingly, homosexual”. At one point, he is straightforwardly referred to as “Homosexual Mayor Pete Buttigieg”.
Rep Johnson’s views on homosexuality are no secret and he has even written about criminalising it, called it “dangerous” and “inherently unnatural”, and partly blamed it for the collapse of the Roman Empire. His wife removed a website for her company the day after a report revealed that documents posted there compared homosexuality to bestiality and incest.
The book includes insults towards Secretary Buttigieg, but he is not the only one targeted. Secretary Deb Haaland is also subjected to derogatory language, being labeled as “half oppressed” due to her mixed Native American and Norwegian heritage.
One source claims that former president Barack Obama’s main appeal was his race, while another states that late Arizona senator John McCain, a moderate Republican and opponent of former president Donald Trump, leveraged his time as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for political gain.
During his podcast promoting the book, Representative Johnson referred to the author as a close colleague and expressed his support by saying, “I have full faith in the product, otherwise I would not have written the foreword. Therefore, I fully endorse the work.”
After unexpectedly becoming the speaker after Rep Kevin McCarthy was removed and other prominent party members couldn’t gather enough support, Mr Johnson’s beliefs have been closely examined.
The spokesperson for the speaker informed CNN that the Speaker had not read the sections mentioned in the CNN article, which he strongly disagrees with. The Speaker wrote the foreword as a favor to a friend and supports the overall theme of the book, but does not endorse all of the opinions expressed.
Source: the-independent.com
