House Speaker Mike Johnson dialed the hypocrisy up to 11 during a Tuesday interview with CNBC’s Eamon Javers when the GOP leader whined about how Americans are “losing faith in our institutions” in the wake of Donald Trump’s felony conviction on 34 counts of falsifying business records, even though he undermined those very institutions by criticizing Trump’s “banana republic trial.”
When Eavers asked Johnson about Hunter Biden’s ongoing trial and whether or not the Republican leader would also characterize it as a “banana republic trial,” he was predictably mealy-mouthed.
“I haven’t been able to watch any of that yet. We will see. I hope not,” Johnson responded, before launching into a complaint about Trump’s trial being “a travesty” and “illegitimate” during the Q&A session at CNBC’s CEO Council Summit in Washington, D.C.
“I’m telling you, the American people are upset about it,” Johnson declared. In fact, according to Johnson, he’s traveled all over the country, “[a]nd everywhere I go, East Coast, West Coast, Upstate New York, Deep South, it doesn’t matter, the sentiment is the same. People are losing their faith in our institutions because they see this.”
Johnson was one of the many MAGA minions who played hooky from their jobs as elected officials in order to hold New York City sidewalk press conferences during Trump’s hush money trial and express their outrage over the proceedings.
“These are politically motivated trials, and they are a disgrace,” Johnson said during Trump’s trial. “It is election interference, and they show how desperate—the opposition that President Trump has—how desperate they truly are.”
So it’s no surprise that the people he’s talking to don’t trust much of anything.
Of course, Johnson wouldn’t be a GOP leader if he wasn’t spewing misinformation just about every time he opens his mouth. Polling shows that a majority of voters approve of a “jury finding Donald Trump guilty on all 34 counts.” The same polling shows that a majority of voters (sans Republicans, of course) believe that Trump received a “fair” trial.
Another poll found voters believed the verdict was the “correct” one, and almost one-half felt Trump should end his campaign. Daily Kos’ Kerry Eleveld has written about how GOP operatives are managing Trump’s latest title—convicted felon—as they fight to shore up marginal voters in the coming months, and why they are trying so desperately to convince the public that Trump’s guilty verdict is somehow a “win.”
During Tuesday’s interview, Javers tried to point out that Johnson’s claims are belied by reality.
“Is the system biased in favor of President Biden when it comes to the Donald Trump trial, but somehow not biased in favor of him when it comes to the trial of his own son?” Javers asked.
“Well, I don’t know. We will see how the trial of his son plays out,” Johnson said. “But you can make an argument there that, I mean, has he had a fair jury that’s been selected? I don’t know. We will see. I haven’t had time to dial in on that.”
Johnson’s defining characteristic at this point is his ability to spout word-salad statements that almost sound like meaningful answers.
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