Johnson Is Trying To Keep His Options Open As He Dodges Questions On Election Certification

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA), an increasingly loyal Donald Trump ally, gave a vague, cryptic response to a question around if he would willingly preside over the certification of the 2024 presidential election if he is still speaker.

“Look, I think I have shown that I am a rule-of-law person,” Johnson told Politico. “I follow the Constitution and follow the laws, and we just pray and hope and pray that this is a non-controversial election, and that everything’s fair and square, and that I hope the margin is large for whomever wins so that there’s no questions for anybody.”

This is not the first time Johnson has dodged when answering a question about the certification of the upcoming presidential election.

During a September press conference, when asked if he’d “commit to observing regular order in the certification process of the 2024 election, even if Kamala Harris beats Donald Trump,” Johnson seemed to offer a familiar ultimatum in response.

“Well of course — if we have a free, fair, and safe election, we’re going to follow the Constitution. Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely,” the House Speaker said.

Johnson’s answers are in line with former President Trump’s recent rhetoric around the issue. Over the past several months, Trump has repeatedly said he will only accept the results of the election if it’s “fair.”

But the word “fair” has become a dog-whistle for the far-right members of the GOP. MAGA Republicans have spent the last six months setting the stage to claim that the election was fraudulent if Trump loses his third bid for the Oval Office to Vice President Kamala Harris in a few short weeks.

One of the most cohesive efforts around this has been the organized push to spread baseless claims that non-citizens are illegally participating in U.S. elections en masse — and voting for Democrats.

“We know that states are not requesting proof of citizenship and people check that box … so there’s going to be thousands upon thousands of non-citizens voting,” Johnson said over the weekend, doubling down on his already-aggressive efforts to elevate the myth of non-citizen voting this summer. “If you have enough non-citizens participating in some of these swing areas, you can change the outcome of the election in the majority.”

Despite the disinformation Johnson and other MAGA Republicans are pushing, there is simply no evidence to suggest that non-citizen voting is a real problem. In addition, it is, of course, illegal for non-citizens to vote in state, federal or even most local elections, and states themselves have measures in place to protect their elections from non-citizen voting, including severe penalties for doing so, like the risk of deportation.

The question around Johnson and his role in certifying the 2024 election is all dependent on if Republicans keep control of the House after the election, and if the Louisiana congressman will be able to keep his position as Speaker of the House or if his far-right flank will give him the boot.

Johnson claims he’s “not even thinking about that” but the close relationship he is maintaining with Trump is reportedly a sign of the opposite.

Johnson likely knows that if Trump wins the election and Republicans maintain control of the House, he will need his support to secure his position as the man second in line to the presidency.

If House Republicans learned anything from the ousting of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), it is that to maintain power in a Republican-controlled House, especially one with a slim majority, the Speaker needs to keep Trump and the far-right MAGA Republican members happy.