On Tuesday evening, Florida Republicans in the 7th district did something that House Speaker Mike Johnson so far has refused to do: they booted Rep. Mills lost to former news anchor Ryan Elijah. This came after the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into Mills for allegedly violating campaign finance laws, misusing congressional resources and engaging in sexual misconduct or dating violence.
Last year, a judge hit Mills with a restraining order prohibiting him from contacting an ex-partner after she claimed that Mills threatened to leak nude videos and images to blackmail her. Over time, he had become a liability and Republicans feared he could cost them the seat in hyper-Republican Florida. Tellingly, despite President Donald Trump having endorsed Mills back in February, he did not support Mills publicly before the primary.
The day after, though, Trump claimed he told Mills to step aside. He thought he could win, so who can blame him?” Trump said. But Mills’s loss does show there still are limits to what voters will stomach — even Republicans.
Notably, Trump did not mention the allegations against Mills. And Johnson, who fashions himself as a straight-laced Christian conservative, has refused to say that Mills needed to go. He has done the same with Rep.
Max Miller of Ohio, who faces domestic violence accusations from his ex-wife. Where John Boehner forced out Chris Lee after the then-congressman posted a shirtless photo of himself to a woman he met on Craigslist and Paul Ryan removed Dennis Hastert’s portrait from the speaker’s lobby after reports Hastert molested children, Johnson lacks the numbers to be a morality police. That means he only pushed out Rep.
Tony Gonzales of Texas, who faced numerous reports for months about an inappropriate relationship with a former staffer who died by suicide, when Democrats kicked out Eric Swalwell of California after a report Swalwell allegedly sexually assaulted a former staffer. And Johnson called on Gonzales to not seek re-election after Gonzales admitted to an affair with his staffer — but only after he skirted around whether he did for months. To be clear, Democrats have not covered themselves in glory when it comes to sexual misconduct from their members.
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