PEORIA, Ill. – The Speaker of the House says he’s visited more than 110 cities and communities since taking the job in October, and added Peoria to the list Saturday night.
Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana made a visit to the River City for the annual Peoria and Tazewell County Republicans Lincoln Day Dinner. He was joined by Congressman Darin LaHood (R-Dunlap), and 17th Congressional candidate Judge Joe McGraw, speaking to the media before the dinner.
Johnson says he’s been seeing an increase of support for the Republican party in recent months, no matter where he goes.
“Something is really happening out there in the grassroots and in the country, and whether we’re on the east coast, the west coast, north, or south, it’s the same thing. People are just fed up,” Johnson said.
Johnson says people he talks to are deeply concerned about the border, the cost of living, rising anti-Semitism, rising crime, and perception of America in the world. He says McGraw is “highly qualified” to serve the district to solve those problems, and would be a contributor on day one of the next Congress.
The Speaker also reacted to the Trump guilty verdict on Thursday, where the former President was found guilty of 34 felony counts of falsifying documents. Johnson says Trump was able to raise more than $58 million in the 24 hours after the verdict. But adds that House Republicans also raised a record amount of money.
“They see that the nominee for the Republican party is being attacked, and that they’re using our judicial system to go after a political opponent,” Johnson said. “That’s what the Democrat party and that’s what these rogue prosecutors have done, and I think people are disgusted by it.”
Johnson says Trump is now seen as a “symbol” of a person willing to fight back against the “deep state.”
The Speaker also says the country is at a “faithful moment,” of whether Americans have to decide if the country wants to hold on to its founding principles, or trade it in for, what he calls, a “European style socialist utopia” pushed by colleagues on the Democratic side of the aisle.
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