House Speaker Mike Johnson made a telling admission while defending President Donald Trump.
Though the 54-year-old revealed on Monday that he is in the president’s camp regarding unfounded claims of election fraud in California, he admitted much of it is “impossible to prove.”
The GOP lawmaker started by explaining to CNN’s chief congressional correspondent, Manu Raju, that he shares the MAGA consensus that the Los Angeles mayoral primary was unfairly “rigged” against reality star Spencer Pratt.
“Speaking of fraud, the president keeps saying that there’s election fraud in the California mayor’s race. What evidence is there to prove that?” Raju asked the Louisiana congressman.
“You tell me, Manu,” Johnson, 54, replied. “They are counting votes weeks after the election. We have entire nations with huge populations, like India, that can count their votes in 24 to 48 hours.”
Raju pressed on whether Johnson believes the election was “rigged,” as Trump, 79, has described it.
“I’m not saying it’s rigged. I’m saying it stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that,” the House Speaker asserted. “Let’s, let’s, let’s remove the appearance of impropriety. Let’s have—what, what a concept—let’s have votes on an election the day of the election. That’s what many states are able to do. I think California is playing around with us."
“But what evidence is there to prove that the election was rigged?” Raju replied.
“Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream, it is impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here, and that’s a concern,” Johnson said. “We need people to believe in the integrity of our election system. It is critical to maintain a constitutional republic.”
“We’re going to keep working to pass the SAVE America Act because it requires, as you know, proof of citizenship and a photo ID to vote,” he continued. “Those are also 90-percent-plus issues in public opinion, and 70 percent of Democrats understand that’s necessary.”
Raju fired back, asking if Johnson—and Republicans at large—only claim fraud in elections that they lose.
“I’m saying that every leader of all parties should demand election integrity, and if somebody is opposing that, you should look at their motives,” the Louisiana congressman replied.
MAGAsphere figures big and small erupted in a chorus of complaints against California’s vote-counting process over the weekend, after The Hills star’s initial lead in the mayoral primary was clipped as more votes were counted.
Names like Laura Loomer, Meghan McCain, and Arizona GOP Rep. Abe Hamadeh all spouted skepticism over the legitimacy of the election in one of the most liberal cities in the country.
California often takes longer to count votes than other states—not only due to its high population, but also the popularity of mail-in voting.
Trump himself went into a tirade over what he believed to be an unfair election that evolved into an embarrassing meltdown in an interview with NBC News’s Kristen Welker on Sunday.
Pratt was officially eliminated from the running on Monday, after the Associated Press called that LA city councilmember Nithya Raman had advanced to the November runoff against incumbent Democrat Karen Bass.
