US President Joe Biden has already delivered his State of the Union address. He addressed a joint session of the US Congress on Thursday (March 7) at 9 pm local time (Friday 8 pm Bangladesh time).
During the State of the Union address, the Speaker of the House (the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the lower house of Parliament) and the Vice President sit in the seats behind the President Biden.
Kamala Harris sat in the seat of the vice president. But there is a new face in the House Speaker's seat. Who is this person?
The new face is newly elected Speaker Mike Johnson. Since Biden took office as president, the State of the Union address has seen three speakers so far. They are former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Kevin McCarthy and most recently Mike Johnson.
Pelosi managed to retain control of the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections after Biden took office, but was defeated.
Then came Kevin McCarthy. He was ousted last year (2023) after backing a deal to continue funding the government.
Republican lawmaker Mike Johnson was elected House Speaker in October last year after McCarthy. The congressman from Louisiana received 220 votes in the polls. 217 votes were needed to win.
Mike Johnson, 51, is known as a close supporter of Trump. In 2016, he was first elected as a Congressman in the House of Representatives. He served as chairman of the House Republican Conference. He also served as a GOP deputy.
Johnson is an expert on constitutional law. Sent personal e-mail messages to Republican congressmen working to invalidate Texas electoral votes.
After Joe Biden's victory on November 7, 2020, X (then Twitter) wrote to President Trump, "Stay strong and fight."
"I don't want to see anybody but Johnson," Trump told his supporters during the speaker election. Don't want to hear any negative comments about him. Everyone likes him. He is respected by all.
