Mike Johnson Admits He Can’t Prove His Fraudulent Election Claims
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he could not prove his election fraud claims that three GOP candidates had lost despite being ahead when polls closed.
The Louisiana Republican was asked about President Donald Trump’s call this week to nationalize elections, citing repeatedly disproven claims of fraud during the 2020 presidential election.
“We had three Republican candidates who were ahead on Election Day in last cycle, and every time a new tranche of ballots came in they just magically whittled away until their leads were lost,” Johnson said. “It looks on its face to be fraudulent. Can I prove that? No.”
Why It Matters
Trump and several Republicans have been pushing for changes to the way elections are conducted in the U.S., but the president does not have the power to make changes–those lie with Congress. Under the U.S. Constitution, states are given the authority to decide how elections should be run, with the differences leading to debate around mail-in ballots, counting times and voting machines in recent years.
Johnson was the architect of the January 6, 2021, plot to send election results back to several states in a last-ditch failed effort to keep Joe Biden from becoming president.
What To Know
Trump told podcaster Dan Bongino, his former FBI deputy director, that he felt voting was corrupt in the U.S. and power needed to be taken away from the states, instead going to a national body Republicans should create.
“The Republicans should say, ‘We want to take over. We should take over the voting in at least 15 places.’ The Republicans ought to nationalize the voting,” Trump said Monday on The Dan Bongino Show.
The comments sparked concerns from states and Democrats, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, calling the idea “outlandishly illegal.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt sought the clarify the comments on Tuesday, saying that the president was speaking about the SAVE Act currently making its way through Congress that seeks to make some changes to elections, including introducing voter ID requirements.
Johnson’s comments around potential election fraud, however, echo those made by the president and others in the GOP that are often tied to their push for election reform, despite a lack of evidence to back their allegations.
While some cases of voter fraud have been proven true, and the Department of Justice has secured convictions, Trump’s claims around the 2020 and 2024 elections have largely been disproven.
The Trump administration recently restarted an investigation into potential voter fraud in Fulton County, Georgia, where the president claimed he won six years ago but that ballots were stolen or altered, handing victory there to Biden.
What People Are Saying
Wisconsin Republican Representative Bryan Steil, chairman of the House Administration Committee, in a statement: “Americans should be confident their elections are being run with integrity—including commonsense voter ID requirements, clean voter rolls, and citizenship verification. These reforms will improve voter confidence, bolster election integrity, and make it easy to vote, but hard to cheat.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, a South Dakota Republican, told reporters on Tuesday: “I’m supportive of only citizens voting and showing ID at polling places. I think that makes sense.…But I’m not in favor of federalizing elections, no. I think that’s a constitutional issue.”
Representative Don Bacon, a Nebraska Republican, on X: “I opposed nationalizing elections when [House] Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi wanted major changes to elections in all 50 states. I’ll oppose this now as well. I work w/the NE Gov & Unicameral to ensure we have secure elections where every citizen’s vote counts. This is what the Constitution calls for.”
What Happens Next
Johnson said he wanted to see greater consistency across the U.S. when it comes to how elections are held, including counting methods, and called on members of both parties to come together on the issue.
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