Rep. Foxx told reporter to ‘shut up’ for asking Johnson about efforts to overturn 2020 election

Republican Rep. Virginia Foxx told a reporter to “shut up” Tuesday night after the journalist asked then-Speaker nominee Rep. Mike Johnson about his involvement with the attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Rachel Scott from ABC News was asking Mr. Johnson about the matter during a news conference when he started shaking his head and the Republicans around him started shouting at the reporter and booing her.

“Shut up! Shut up!” Ms. Foxx, North Carolina Republican, yelled at Ms. Scott.

After another question by Ms. Scott, Ms. Foxx shouted at her to “go away.”

In a video of the moment, Rep. Lauren Boebert, Colorado Republican, can be heard saying “oh gosh” to the question, and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, is seen laughing.

Mr. Johnson was revealed as the fourth nominee for speaker Tuesday night, and on Wednesday he was voted in unanimously by Republicans with a final vote of 220-209. He won the gavel in only one round of voting, giving the House an elected speaker after three weeks without one.

The Louisiana Republican played a big role in the effort to overturn the 2020 election for former President Donald Trump. He recruited more than 100 House Republicans to support a Texas lawsuit that was seeking to overturn the election results in four states that President Biden won: Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Reports said that on Tuesday, former Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming Republican, and her team were circulating a New York Times article from 2022 that called Mr. Johnson “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections” on Jan. 6.