Speaker-in-Waiting Johnson Sees 'Dramatic Change,' Has 'Not Ruled Anything In or Out' on Impeaching the President

WASHINGTON — Johnson, on course to be elected Speaker in January, told reporters the American people "want disruption, they want dramatic change," and that on the question of impeaching the president of the other party, "we haven't ruled anything in and we haven't ruled anything out." The question, The Press notes, had been asked.

He has been less equivocal about the president's cabinet. On the campaign trail Johnson promised that "one of the first things that we do is to run" the defense secretary "out of town," and the House is expected to take up that impeachment in the lame-duck session, before the new majority is even sworn in.

Johnson has called the president "the dumbest person ever to sit at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue" and, over the summer, a "feeble, unhinged, conspiracy-peddling 80-year-old failed president." Allies describe his coming approach as "bold and smart, not bold and stupid," and say he will "avoid massively divisive votes," a description The Press was unable to reconcile with the preceding sentence.

The incoming Speaker has also pledged to "hold the crooks accountable," a reference to the administration, and one senior member of his caucus predicted that its officials "should not sleep well at night."

The Press's House desk applies the standard test. When a Speaker of the other party called the president feeble and unhinged, declined to rule out impeachment and promised to run a cabinet secretary out of town, it was "a dangerous escalation" and "a party consumed by hatred." Under Johnson it is "an aggressive oversight agenda." The gavel weighs the same in either hand.

At press time nothing had been ruled in, which aides said should not be confused with anything having been ruled out.