Mike Johnson’s Cynicism
Confirming who he always has been.
![[Speaker of the House Mike Johnson]](https://outsidethebeltway.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/mike_johnson_speaker_candidater-1024x576.webp)
Like Kevin McCarthy before him, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) is unwilling to speak the truth about the 2020 elections in a clear demonstration of obeisance to Donald Trump. WaPo reports on his appearance on This Week: Johnson won’t say Biden won in 2020, raising worries on 2024’s process.
During the interview Sunday, Johnson accused Stephanopoulos of trying to get him to “litigate things that happened four years ago when we’re talking about the future.”
“We’re not going to talk about what happened in 2020,” Johnson said. “I’m not going to engage in it. We’re — we’re not talking about that.”
But Stephanopoulos argued that Trump “every single day” claims that the “election was rigged, that he won and that Joe Biden lost.”
“I’m just saying if you accept that or not,” Stephanopoulos said.
“I’m not going to play the game,” Johnson said.
This is not different than being asked if you believe that the Earth is round or flat. Johnson has a view and I even think he knows the truth. But he also knows that answering either places him with the Flat Earthers or forces him to contradict the Flat Earther leader of his party and might upset many Flat Earther believing voters.
But, as the piece reminds us, Johnson has been willing to subvert the election process to aid said leader.
In the immediate aftermath of the 2020 election, Johnson led a congressional effort to overturn the presidential results in four battleground states, gathering 125 House Republicans to join him in signing a Supreme Court brief claiming that the results were fraudulent because state election officials changed voting procedures — without first seeking legislative approval — to address the challenges of casting ballots during the coronavirus pandemic. That effort failed.
Johnson was also among the Republicans who, on Jan. 6, 2021, voted against certifying the electoral college vote for Biden in two key battleground states.
What we can know for certain is the Johnson, despite his mild-mannered affect, is willing to subvert the electoral process if it helps his side. I think, too, that that attempt was utterly cynical because if he was a true believer, rather than an opportunist, we would be happy to forthrightly tell Stephanopolous that yes, Trump won in 2020. Instead, he doesn’t want to “litigate things that happened four years ago,” despite their clear relevance to now.
I mean, who needs resumes when making hires?
“So, Mr. Speaker, do you think we should hire this babysitter? It says here that he lost the three kids he was watching in his previous stint, and they were never heard from again.”
“That’s the past. We are looking for a babysitter for the future.”
But, I digress.
Back to WaPo:
In January, Johnson told CBS News’s Margaret Brennan during an interview on “Face The Nation” that while Biden was “certified as the winner of the election, he took the oath of office, he’s been the president for three years,” the Constitution was “violated” before the 2020 vote.
Here’s the deal: if, in fact, Johnson thinks that the Constitution was violated, he has been pretty calm about it. Organizing a vote that he knew would fail, as awful an act as that was because it fueled skepticism in the integrity of our institutions, is not a difficult thing to do. It is also utterly inadequate to address a violation of the Constitution.
Moreover, the courts, including SCOTUS, had chances to weigh in. What we saw was that election denialism failed spectacularly in court.
I started this post initially with the intention of calling out Johnson for cowardice. But, this isn’t cowardice. It is all calculated and cynical. His actions in 2020 were, at best a serious of symbolic actions that he knew would fail but that had the clear effect of damaging faith in American democracy; at worst they were a sincere attempt to steal an election.
I would again note that he has not acted like a man who believes we had a serious violation of the Constitution. Rather, he has been more than happy to serve in the House, and to ascend to one of the highest offices in the federal government and to govern more or less normally (in the clip below he talks about working with President Biden).
However, he is also willing to continue his cynical degradation of American democracy because it serves his narrow partisan and personal interests.
It is shameful.
Here’s the video:
By the way, asking about his position on this topic is asking about an issue facing the country.
The notion that such a question is a “gotcha game” is a sad commentary on the state of the Republican Party at the moment.
Porque no los dos?
There is some genuine fear of violence in our current politics, part of the trend toward authoritarianism so beloved of our current orange leader and his acolytes and mentors.
As for calculated and cynical, recall that Mike Johnson is tight with the New Apostolic Reformation (“Dominionists”), a very politically ambitious, powerful and well funded group. And the NAR is allied with other extreme right groups.
Johnson is currently playing games now with supplemental disaster funding needed because of Helene and Milton.
The notion that such a question is a “gotcha game” is a sad commentary on the state of the Republican Party at the moment. Yes, but it is also a sad commentary on the media when it accepts a scripted (and likely focus group tested) non-answer to a legitimate question. I’d love to see a figure like Stephanopoulous restate the question and insist on an answer, and threaten to end the interview if one is not forthcoming. And then do it! Pull the plug on these clowns. Politicians do the non-answer thing because the media allows them to do so. And Steven is dead-on right about Johnson…like Vance, he is a power hungry, ambition driven cynic.
The Republicans in Congress do not believe in the Constitution. To them it might as well be toilet paper.
Kudos to Steph for pressing him, and maybe I’m missing something, but it would be quite easy to point out that the behavior in the 2020 election really is very relevant to those same people’s behavior in the 2024 election. Trump and others are already pulling the same “we can’t lose unless it’s rigged” nonsense.
It’s been glaringly obvious for some time that the GOP has culled most of its members capable of shame and replaced them with shameless grifters.
Mike Johnson is particularly loathsome. Pure cringe.
Treason: the crime of betraying one’s country, especially by attempting to kill the sovereign or overthrow the government.
I asked this question the other day. At one point, does continual lying about the results of an election and continual undermining of the duly constituted procedures of an election and its Constitutional underpinnings veer into an act of treason.
At some point, one of these talk show hosts need to really get the gumption to basically say: “Get off my show until you are ready to be honest and uncorrupt.” Along with a directive to the producer in their ear saying “We are ending this farce now”.
We talk a lot about spineless Republicans but the spine is lacking in all parts of our society.
Being a true believer doesn’t make one oblivious to political realities. That is, he could certainly be a true believer and still figure that being happy and forthright about his belief is bad politics. And yet, as you say, he could be merely an opportunist.
Assumes he cares about the Constitution. Or rather, that his regard for the Constitution outweighs his regard for other things. See true believer vs. cynical opportunist point above.
Yeah, I’ve never been a fan of the cowardice charge in such discussions. What does it even mean to act cowardly in this context? Politician X repeats a Trump talking point they know to be untrue. Is that cowardly? Maybe, I guess. Seems to me that it’s more likely to be the outcome of a political cost-benefit analysis.
Let’s say Politician Y repeats a Trump talking point because they fear for their safety if they make a contradictory statement instead. Is that cowardly? Again, maybe. Could just as easily be the outcome of a different cost-benefit analysis.
I like your framing of this as calculated.
Had expected this to be provoked by Speaker Johnson refusing to call an emergency session to fund FEMA. Of course, Johnson’s smooth hypocracy gives multiple examples.
@Mimai:
A fair point.
@Steven
Thank you for trying, but I’m finding all these words: cowardly, calculating, cynical, political cost-benefit analysis – inadequate to the moment.
Treasonous (per @Scott) is closer I think, but even that doesn’t capture to my mind how dangerous all this is. Because, in the same way as Johnson’s non-action regarding what he calls a “violation of the Constitution” indicates a lack of commitment to the idea, calling the Speaker of the House out for treason without further action from someone in authority just rings hollow.
Margaret Sullivan, from the Guardian and Substack, notes in her column today that the release of Jack Smith’s J6 filing on Friday should have landed like at asteroid, but it didn’t. She writes, “Appalling though its contents were, the brief became just part of the flood of politics news, most interesting as part of the presidential horserace.” Stephanopoulus pushed Mike Johnson a little, but ultimately let him off the hook and we’re sure to see the Speaker back on This Week some time soon. The signs that the Republicans will not accept a result where Trump loses are everywhere, but political business as usual holds sway.
I’m loath to violate Godwin’s Law so quickly in this comment thread, but this is the “banality of evil” used to explain Eichmann’s actions. Mike Johnson’s calculating cynicism isn’t what keeps me up at night. It’s our – our leaders, our press, our voters – complacency in the face of it.
This comment was deleted due to being off topic
@Jack: Here how you might consider staying on topic:
1. Dispute the actual content of the post.
2. Address why you think Johnson was acting reasonably.
3. Address anything about the actual post itself.
4. Answer the question yourself: did Trump win the 2020 election?
Seriously, it’s not that hard to stay on topic.
Feel free to comment on whatever you like in the Open Fora. They do not have a specific topic by definition.
@Charley in Cleveland: Only plays to the two “choirs:” your side praises Stephy for being tough, the MAGAts criticize him for trying to spring an unethical/off topic “gotcha” question on the Speaker of the House*, and praise Johnson for his courage in standing up to it. MAGAts win 2 to 1.
*And I can read in my mind’s eye Jack and JKB posting “He’d never have done that to Pelosi” the next day. (MAGAts score with the lurkers.)
@Scott F.:
As I noted a couple of days ago, we’re at saturation for Trump antics. We can’t even sustain outrage among ourselves anymore because the bs is too engrained in the fabric of the times. J6 is simply another Trump outrage now.
Autocracy, authoritarianism, fascism etc. have developed in many countries, Trumpism is one of many that, generally, share some typical aspects. Mike Johnson is just one of the “soldiers,” equivalent to a battalion commander, a major or lt. colonel maybe. Trumpism has its own special aspects, but not really that out of the fascism norm.
Here is a piece I came across recently:
“SarahKendzior”
@just nutha:
But, this isn’t the misogyny, xenophobia, corruption, or dementia of the typical Trump outrage. The Big Lie, J6, and election denialism (as a package) are a uniquely dangerous outrage and we can’t afford to be numbed to them. Saturation of the idea that the US election process can’t be trusted is THE cynical calculation being demonstrated by Mike Johnson.
The Speaker of the House is the third most powerful person in the US government and he won’t even acknowledge that his party’s candidate (with enablers throughout the GOP) has every intention of contesting the outcome of the 2024 election if he loses. Trump’s been saying for a while that if he loses, the Democrats will have had to have cheated. Now the GOP establishment is joining in. Republican mouthpieces are escalating this rhetoric now that the polls favor Harris and it appears Trump won’t win outright even with the EC advantage.
On November 5th, even without a plausible argument that he’s won the necessary 270+ electoral votes, Trump is going to say he won. This strategy has been telegraphed for months and Jack Smith’s filing reinforces that this play from 2020 is going to be tried again, this time with greater conviction. Are we all that confident US institutions will hold again this time?
@Scott F.: There’s no shame in doing the wrong thing, if you simply don’t feel shame.*
I expect there’s a nice German word that expresses the modern Republican behavior.
*: this reminds me of “being angry is a choice” type stuff, except perverted to evil.
@Scott F.:
I’m worried about the courts, especially what used to be the supreme court.
Usually courts deal in hard evidence. But when you inject judges like Canon in Florida, or the corrupt six higher up, they can simply do as the Felon wants.
On the upside, Biden controls the military, and six justices said he’s immune from prosecution for official acts, like putting down a coup.
@Scott F.: I don’t disagree. Our concurrence changes nothing, just the same.
@Gustopher: Schrecklichkeit.
Transparently slick and greasy. Mike Johnson is a Christian Nationalist who is willing to completely sell out any trace of honesty and ethics in the pursuit getting Trump back into the White House.
In a way, Mike Johnson is the House of Representative’s counterpart to the Supreme Court’s Justice Samuel Alito. Both are have very prominent roles, both are conservative Christians who clearly have an agenda that goes beyond institutional norms regarding separation of Church and State.