Johnson Gives Away How the GOP’s ‘Election Fraud’ Demagoguery Works

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Monday perfectly summed up the GOP’s position on election fraud: In spite of their best efforts, Republicans can’t ever prove that it is happening but “instinctively” know it’s there… at least when they are losing.

Specifically, he was commenting on the results of California’s primary, where Spencer Pratt, the Republican candidate for Los Angeles mayor, won’t make the runoff even though he was in one of the top two spots at the end of Election Day. However, with more mail-in ballots being counted, he has since dropped to the third position, which means that he will not advance to the general election.

And even though Pratt would have gotten trounced there (the left-of-center candidates in the race got about 70 percent of the primary vote), Donald Trump, who will never miss any opportunity to undermine democracy, claimed that there was fraud. As per usual, he did not provide any evidence to back up that allegation.

However, when the president makes an unsubstantiated accusation, Republicans in Congress are expected to fall in line to back him up.

And that’s what Johnson, arguably one of Trump’s top toadies on Capitol Hill, did when asked about the race.

“I’m not saying it’s rigged,” he explained before basically saying exactly that. “I’m saying it stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that.”

To be clear, “everybody” does not know that. In fact, the people who bother with learning about what is going on (even if they believe that California is not doing itself any favors with its slow vote count), realize that there are good reasons for why Pratt was ahead last Tuesday but has since fallen behind – and that this is all a bit silly anyway because he is a reality TV star with no experience and no chance of winning in November.

Johnson could find out those things (and he probably does know them), but it is much more politically expedient for Republicans to assert that something sinister is going on, which is why he said California should “remove the appearance of impropriety.”

Of course, that “appearance” only exists because of the GOP’s baseless claims.

When he was pressed on his statements and the lack of proof, Johnson doubled down.

“Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream, it is impossible to prove,” he said. “But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here, and that’s a concern.”

Well, there you have it. While this alleged fraud is out in the open and easy to see for everybody, it’s also so insidious that it cannot be proven.

That’s convenient.

Ironically, Republicans take the opposite approach when it comes to Trump’s behavior, transgressions, and law-breaking. In that case, they refuse to believe any of it even though ample proof is out there.

Johnson wasn’t done.

“We need people to believe in the integrity of our election system,” he said. “It is critical to maintain a constitutional republic.”

No kidding, Mike! So maybe you, your boss, and your buddies should stop making stuff up! That would go a long way toward preserving the integrity of the election system.