How much playing dumb can House Speaker Mike Johnson do before he reveals that he’s a genuine idiot?
During a press conference Friday, Johnson had an outlandish response when asked about a recent ProPublica report that found 170 U.S. citizens had been unlawfully detained by ICE, including 20 children.
“I’m not—I don’t know what you’re talking about with the children,” Johnson replied.
When the reporter interrupted to repeat the number of U.S. citizens that had been detained, Johnson doubled down. “I haven’t seen that, so I’m not going to comment on it. But I will tell you that ICE is doing the job that the American people demanded that they do.”
Johnson was also asked about Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene’s comments criticizing the speaker for failing to address the protective order against Representative Cory Mills for allegedly threatening to release sexually explicit materials of his ex-girlfriend.
“They expelled George Santos, Mike Johnson did. He was speaker and oversaw George Santos being expelled. Why isn’t he doing anything about Cory Mills?” Greene told Axios Thursday.
“There’s clearly proof behind her accusations that a judge is issuing a restraining order. So I would say to Speaker Johnson, this is a serious matter, and it needs to be taken seriously,” she added.
But Johnson didn’t seem interested in that. “I don’t—I try not to react to what Marjorie Taylor Greene says everyday,” he replied Friday.
“I did see, somebody told me that she accused me of ousting Santos, which of course is the exact opposite of the history. Everyone can go review what happened. I opposed his expulsion from Congress. I voted against it. I advocated to my colleagues not to do that,” he said.
Johnson oversaw Santos’s expulsion in 2023, though he noted at the time he had voted against the measure because he didn’t want to set a precedent of removing members who had not been convicted of a crime. The Louisiana Republican also claimed that as Santos reported to prison, he had posted a friendly message about the speaker. In fact, Santos had accused Johnson of blocking his shot at a presidential pardon.
“So look, I don’t know what Marjorie’s talking about,” Johnson said, adding that he’d wait for the legal procedures against Mills to play out. (Johnson had dismissed a question about the Mills allegations Wednesday as not “really serious.”)
This is far from the first time Johnson has played dumb about a question, as he continues to conduct daily propaganda press briefings during the ongoing government shutdown. “I don’t know” has become his answer for everything.
Johnson claimed Thursday he had “no idea” how the government shutdown would end. When asked about reports of brutality by federal agents operating in Chicago, Johnson claimed he’d “not seen them cross the line yet.”
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