US Politics
Mike Johnson serves up word salad when asked about Trump’s call for Congress members to face death penalty
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House Speaker Mike Johnson defended President Donald Trump’s saying that Democratic members of Congress should face the death penalty for saying that members of the military can refuse orders if they believe those commands violate their oaths to the Constitution.
A handful of Democratic members of Congress and senators who served in the U.S. military or intelligence posted a video on social media on Tuesday saying that members of the military can refuse orders they deem illegal.
The video included Reps. Chris DeLuzio (D-Penn.), Chrissy Houlahan (D-Penn.), Maggie Goodlander (D-N.H.) and Jason Crow (D-Colo .) as well as Sens. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.).
Conservatives raged against the video and Trump posted on Truth Social: “Their words cannot be allowed to stand. SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR FROM TRAITORS!!! LOCK THEM UP???”
Later on, Trump reposted a Truth user saying, ‘HANG THEM’ and later said they committed “SEDITIOUS BEHAVIOR” which was “punishable by DEATH.”
But Johnson said that Trump simply defined what crime they committed, though his comment was hard to decipher.
“What I read was he was defining the crime of sedition,” he told The Independent. “But obviously attorneys have to parse the language and determine all that. What I’m saying, what I will say unequivocally, that was a wildly inappropriate thing for so called leaders in Congress to do to encourage young troops to disobey orders.”
Specifically, Johnson called out Kelly, who had previously confronted him during the government shutdown for not swearing in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) for more than a month after she won her special election.
“This is out of control and is wildly inappropriate,” Johnson said. “And for a senator like Mark Kelly, or any member of Congress in the House or Senate to be engaged in that kind of talk is is, to me, just so beyond the pale.”
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), meanwhile, defended members of his caucus for their words.
“We unequivocally condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting and dangerous threats against members of Congress and call on House Republicans to forcefully do the same,” Jeffries said. Jeffries said Democrats had been in contact with the House Sergeant at Arms and U.S. Capitol Police about the safety of members.
Johnson has long been an ally of the president even when he has called for acts of violence.
Johnson, then a backbencher member of Congress, led an amicus brief in a Texas lawsuit to invalidate the 2020 election results in swing states that Joe Biden won. After the January 6 riot, Johnson still voted to object to the 2020 presidential election results and voted against impeaching Trump for his role in the riot.
When Trump pardoned January 6 rioters, Johnson said “it’s his decision” and said “It’s kind of my ethos, my worldview: we believe in redemption. We believe in second chances.”
Earlier this week, Johnson voted for legislation pushed by every Democrat and a handful of rogue Republicans to disclose files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But that came only after Trump called on Republicans to vote for the legislation. And Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) proposed a discharge petition to force a vote on the legislation because Johnson refused to put such legislation on the floor.
