Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) just won the dubious honor of being selected by the Republican caucus to be their nominee for the Speaker of the House. Make no mistake: just like McCarthy, Emmer is a MAGA Republican and dangerous Trump acolyte who will continue pushing the same political stunts in Congress to benefit the former president.
Throughout the past ten months of Republican leadership, Emmer has supported Trump throughout his myriad legal troubles. During the Trump administration, he voted in-line with Trump’s views almost 90 percent of the time. He is a fervent election denier and conspiracy theorist who worked to undermine and overturn the results of the 2020 election and has backed January 6th participants and conspiracy theorists for office. Emmer has demonstrated that he will only continue to use his position to attack President Biden and House Democrats in order to score political points and work toward re-electing Donald Trump.
Above all, Emmer is a conspiratorial, hardline MAGA Republican who will continue Kevin McCarthy’s legacy of following Trump’s playbook in an effort to distract from the real issues Americans are facing across the country.
Rep. Tom Emmer Joined The Legal Effort To Overturn The Election And Backed January 6 Participants And Conspiracy Theorists For Office As The Head Of The NRCC. Rep. Tom Emmer signed an amicus brief in support of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuit seeking to overturn the election, claiming that, “All legal votes should be counted and the process should be followed — the integrity of current and future elections depends on this premise and this suit is a part of that process.” In his role as chair of the NRCC, Emmer backed dozens of candidates who worked to overturn the 2020 election or participated in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, including some who continue to spread conspiracy theories about the legitimacy of past elections or plan to interfere with future elections.
Emmer Has Supported Trump Throughout His Legal Woes. Emmer has been loyal to Trump even as his criminal indictments piled up. After the FBI executed a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago in fall 2022, Emmer called it “unprecedented” and “outrageous,” and pivoted to Hunter Biden’s accusations: “The raid on the former president’s home is not only unprecedented, it’s outrageous. And by the way, this double standard is why so many Americans are pissed off about this, Republicans, Democrats, and independents because while they go after Donald Trump and suggest that he’s de something which they’ve been doing for years, I would say that they lost their credibility six years ago with the Russian collusion hoax. And while they’re doing all this, Hunter Biden is still out there being able to peddle influence all around the world, and they do nothing to him. Americans are pissed about that. They’re going to show up in November and Democrats are going to answer for it.” In June, after Trump was indicted for violating the Espionage Act, Emmer released a similar statement calling the charges a “political witch hunt against Donald Trump.”
Emmer Is A MAGA Extremist Who Has Long Supported Impeaching President Biden and His Cabinet. Emmer is close with far-right Reps. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and reportedly helped bring the Freedom Caucus into McCarthy’s fold earlier this year during speakership elections. Like most members of the Freedom Caucus, Emmer supports impeaching President Biden and key members of his cabinet. In May, Emmer called for Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to be impeached by the House, and he has supported the impeachment inquiry into President Biden, stating, “I fully support @Speaker McCarthy’s commitment to follow the facts wherever they lead and ensure no one, not even President Biden, is above the law.”
Emmer Serves On The Hardline MAGA Republican Study Committee. Emmer currently serves on the hard-right Republican Study Committee, which has recently released radical proposals to slash and privatize Medicare and Social Security, limit access to voting, oppose infrastructure funding, and ban abortion nationwide as early as six weeks into pregnancy.