Mike Johnson clashes with George Stephanopoulos over Trump allies blaming Dems for assassination attempts
WASHINGTON, DC: Speaker Mike Johnson clashed with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos regarding rhetoric from some of Donald Trump’s allies, who have blamed Democrats for recent assassination attempts on the former president.
Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, reiterated his long-standing call to “turn the rhetoric down,” yet declined to denounce remarks from Eric Trump and others attributing the threats against his father to Democrats.
Johnson defends Eric Trump's remarks amid assassination attempt blame
“I don’t know the context,” Johnson responded after Stephanopoulos played a clip of Eric Trump’s comments from a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
He added, “I don’t think they’re saying that the Democratic Party tried an assassination attempt...what they’re alluding to is what we’ve all been saying. They have got to turn the rhetoric down.”
Johnson defended Eric Trump’s assertion that top Democrats have portrayed his father as a “threat to democracy,” suggesting that they’ve implied “the republic will end if he’s re-elected.”
Eric Trump had previously condemned the assassination attempts on his father, stating, “They tried to smear us. They came after us. They impeached him twice, and then, guys, they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him, and it’s because of the Democratic Party. They can’t do anything right.”
Despite Stephanopoulos’s repeated questioning about Eric Trump’s rhetoric, Johnson praised him as a “very level-headed and very intelligent person.” He maintained that Eric was addressing the “lawfare” tactics employed against his father.
“We’re in an election cycle. This is a silly season, as they say. We’re…30 days out from the most fateful election of our lifetime,” Johnson asserted.
Johnson deflects election question and criticizes media focus amid hurricane recovery failures
When asked if he could “say unequivocally that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Donald Trump lost,” Johnson deflected, accusing mainstream media of playing a “gotcha game.”
He emphasized, “Joe Biden has been the president for almost four years. Everybody needs to get over this and move forward.”
After the interview, Johnson criticized ABC News for not addressing recovery efforts from Hurricane Helene and other pressing domestic issues.
He later appeared on 'Fox News Sunday', stating, “At the federal level, this has been a massive failure...FEMA has lost sight of its core mission...and the administration has not shown that they were prepared for this eventuality and this terrible disaster.”
