Johnson looks to unify GOP with crack down on college campus protests

Speaker Mike Johnson is zeroing in on the wave of pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked college campuses across the country as he looks to unify his fractured House Republican conference that has been bitterly splintered for months – all while exposing divisions within the House Democratic caucus.

Speaker Mike Johnson is zeroing in on the wave of pro-Palestinian protests that have rocked college campuses across the country as he looks to unify his fractured House Republican conference that has been bitterly splintered for months – all while exposing divisions within the House Democratic caucus. Johnson, who is poised to face a referendum on his rookie speakership as soon as next week, has used the weight of the speaker’s office to launch a multi-faceted investigation into the tense clashes at American universities. That includes tapping committee chairs to beef up oversight of federal funding for schools; hatching plans to haul in college presidents for hearings; exploring additional legislation to address antisemitism; and dispatching key Republicans to visit campus encampments and demonstrations. With multiple committees involved in the effort, Johnson is coordinating the work behind the scenes and making the House-wide investigation a new focal point of the GOP agenda, which has largely been stalled over the past few months. Those plans started to come into sharper focus on Monday when the Louisiana Republican huddled with his leadership team and key committee chairs to discuss how they could expand their current probes, delineate the work across multiple committees and plan a press conference to roll out the new effort, according to multiple senior Republican sources. “It is morally the right thing to do to call it out,” Johnson, who visited Columbia University last week, said of the new investigation on Wednesday. The effort could not only shore up much-needed support for Johnson inside his fractured conference – which has struggled to pass even basic procedural votes and messaging bills – but could also appeal to key voter constituencies, including moderates, independents and suburban parents, ahead of the November elections.