House Speaker Mike Johnson will stand Friday with Donald Trump at an appearance that will amplify the former president’s most damaging falsehood: that America’s democratic elections are catastrophically tainted by fraud.
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The country’s most powerful elected Republican, who is seeking to save his job under threat from Trump-aligned members of his own party in Congress, will travel to meet the true power in the GOP at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. The visit comes as the the ex-president’s allies are eviscerating his authority and even threatening to topple him.
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It also takes place three days before Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, becomes the first former president to go on trial, with the beginning of jury selection in a New York case related to a hush money payment to an adult film star. And there will be another twist Friday in the legal saga over Trump’s forthcoming trial in Florida over his hoarding of classified documents. Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon, whose no-rush management of pre-trial litigation means it’s increasingly unlikely the case will be adjudicated before November’s election, will hear an attempt by two of Trump’s co-accused to have the case dismissed.
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The announced topic of Johnson and Trump’s joint public statement on Friday is “election integrity” – the catch-all term for the stew of conspiracy theories and lies about the 2020 election that Trump is now using as the foundation of his 2024 bid for a new term. The price for Republicans seeking the ex-president’s support has long been a willingness to promote his fictional stolen election conceit. So Johnson’s visit to Trump’s residence may suggest he’s ready to make a similar down payment if the ex-president prevents his ouster as speaker.
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The two GOP leaders are expected to draw attention to what they say are state proposals and lawsuits that would allow non-citizens to vote, CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Fredreka Schouten reported Thursday. Some cities or jurisdictions do allow non-citizens to cast ballots in non-federal elections — for positions on school boards for example. But federal law bans non-citizens from voting in federal elections and any who do risk fines, prison terms and deportation. Given these punishments, many voting rights groups assess there’s no widespread problem to address. The state of Georgia, with nearly 8 million registered voters conducted a statewide audit and found that 1,634 potential non-citizens had tried to register to vote between 1997 and early 2022 but none were successful.
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The stolen election falsehood that dominates the GOP
But given Trump’s incessant attempts to blur distinctions, and to falsely claim undocumented migrants vote in US elections in large numbers as part of a Democratic plot, the distinction is likely to be lost on many people who are not familiar with the subtleties of the issue.
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Johnson’s willingness to lend the authority of his office to Trump’s “election integrity” campaign shows how Trump’s stolen election conspiracy theory has consumed almost every pillar of power in the GOP.
The Republican National Committee has become even more vociferous in campaigning and fundraising on the false premise that the 2020 election was corrupt since Trump took it over and installed loyalists after becoming the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.
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