Mike Johnson has a reflex. When asked about a major breaking news event that is dominating headlines and conversations around Capitol Hill’s proverbial water coolers — usually the president’s latest authoritarian endeavor or national humiliation — Johnson defaults to pretending he has no access to the internet, newspapers, or staff who are quite literally paid to keep him informed.
“I don’t know about that.”
“I just saw a headline as I walked in.”
“I didn’t see it.”
“I was a little busy.”
The House speaker wants you to believe he lives under a rock, that he’s so busy refusing to swear in duly elected members of Congress and plotting ways to strip health care and food assistance from poor people that he simply cannot be bothered to keep up with the news. It’s the least believable schtick in Washington, D.C.
On Monday, Johnson was asked to comment on a viral clip of Trump on 60 Minutes seemingly admitting to not knowing who crypto billionaire and convicted fraudster Changpeng Zhao was before issuing him a pardon.
Johnson — who like Trump and other Republicans has indulged spurious claims that former President Joe Biden relied heavily on the use of an autopen to run his government — was asked during a Monday press conference if Trump’s admission “concerned” him.
“I don’t know anything about that. I didn’t see the interview. I’m not sure,” Johnson replied.
As a one off, it might have been believable, but Johnson has used the line several times recently, throwing into stark relief how often the speaker pleads ignorance to avoid commenting on the perpetual shitstorm in the White House.
In October, Johnson told reporters he hadn’t had a chance to learn the details of Trump’s reported plan to have the Justice Department gift him $230 million as a “settlement” for the prosecutions brought against him over the last several years. The next day, when asked if he’s had time to apprise himself of the looming ethics nightmare at the DOJ, Johnson replied that he was “not trying to dodge the question” and that getting up to speed was “on my list of things to do.”
Last month, Johnson claimed not to have seen Trump’s speech in front of military leadership at Quantico, Virginia, where he declared he views Americans who oppose him as enemy combatants and vowed to use American cities as training grounds for the military. In July, when asked about The Wall Street Journal’s internet-breaking report on a lewd letter Trump wrote to Jeffrey Epstein, Johnson claimed not to have seen the news and thus could not comment on it. In May, the speaker told reporters that the battle over Republicans’ health care-gutting reconciliation package had kept him from learning about Trump’s acceptance of a lavish jet (read: flying bribe) from the Qatari government. The same month, he told CNN he had no idea that the president had hosted a pay-to-attend Mar-a-Lago dinner to boost his meme coin (read: digital bribes).
No one buys that the House speaker — second in line to the succession of the presidency and one of the most resource-endowed figures in American governance — lives in such deep ignorance of American politics. It must be hard for a man as publicly, perhaps performatively, committed to the rule of law, fairness, and moral governance to constantly be asked about the tsunami of amoral, unethical, and potentially illegal activities emanating from the West Wing and across the administration. Feigning ignorance feels a lesser sin than an outright defense.
It speaks to the contempt Johnson and Republicans have for their own electorate and the American public. They’re not gutting health care funding, they’re saving it from couch-potato Joe. The president isn’t funneling billions into his family’s company coffers, he’s crafting critical deals abroad. The economy is not slowing down and prices aren’t spiking, the tariffs are ushering in a golden age of prosperity. ICE isn’t abusing mothers and children in detention, they’re detaining dangerous narcoterrorists. The speaker of the House isn’t ducking the question, he’s just busy.
Republicans have largely given up on providing an earnest defense for Trump’s actions — instead falling back on a rolodex of justifications that become less effective with the public with every poll. Some, like Johnson, aren’t even bothering. In the end, with the levers of power and accountability squarely under their control, they don’t have to listen to the questions, and they don’t have to respond to concerns. They can simply continue to plow onwards, directed by the president’s whims. Corruption? Ethics violations? Unconstitutionality? You may see it, but they haven’t heard anything about that.
