Washington, D.C. (WBEN) - "We're back in business," said Congressman Nick Langworthy, reacting to the selection of Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana as House Speaker.
"We've wasted 22 days on an intramural fight, but I believe we have a
leader that has brought unity to the Republican party."
The selection was unanimous among Republicans.
"His speech struck a great healing tone," said Langworthy on WBEN Thursday.
"He's a gentleman. He's someone who has deep faith, great conviction, and is an ardent Conservative. I respect him a great deal."
Langworthy, a freshman member of Congress, said Johnson is someone he has come to know. Johnson has been serving as Vice Chair of the House Republican Conference.
"He works to empower people across the conference. He has an honesty and
a forthright way about him that is going to make this a new era in the House
Republican leadership." He added, "We're excited to get to work."
Having served only six and a half years, Johnson has the least experience of any speaker in 140 years.
What did the Louisiana Republican have that Steve Scalice, Jim Jordan and Tom Emmer didn't have?
"Self interest crept way too much into this process. When you have been in
leadership for many years, you make enemies and try to prevent people from
advancing." Langworthy went on by saying, "Look how we got here. Eight renegade republicans joined with the entire Democratic Party to decapitate our leadership and take out Kevin McCarthy over a personal vendetta."
Langworthy said no one has a personal vendetta against Mike Johnson. "We're back to work and Johnson is hitting the ground running."
One of the new Speaker's first acts was releasing a new schedule. Recesses have been wiped off the calendar and Langworthy said he'll be canceling some things that he had planned because he's going to be in Washington for a while.
"The world is on fire right now. We have war in Israel. War in Europe. And rising tensions in Asia with China. We have to be vigilant and strong and we also have to get our country's finances back on track," he said.