With 30 days remaining until Election Day, MAGA loyalist and House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) went on the ABC News program This Week with George Stephanopoulos.
When Stephanopoulos mentioned that some Republicans are claiming that Democrats were behind the assassination attempt(s) on former President Donald Trump, Johnson interrupted and said, “Please.” Stephanopoulos gave him an opportunity to condemn the remarks, but Johnson did not.
It’s incredible that “who won the 2020 election?” genuinely is a “gotcha” question for Republicans. https://t.co/ZDVoZet7rO
— Matthew Yglesias (@mattyglesias) October 7, 2024
Stephanopoulos brought up the question that GOP Vice Presidential nominee JD Vance refused to answer at the debate with Democratic Vice Presidential nominee Tim Walz, and asked Johnson: “Can you say unequivocally that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and that Donald Trump lost?”
Johnson replied, “You see, this is always the game played by mainstream media with we Republicans. It’s a gotcha game.” He added, “You want us to litigate things that happened four years ago, when we’re talking about the future. We’re not going to talk about what happened in 2020.”
When Stephanopoulos pointed out that at almost every rally, Trump mentions that the 2020 election was “rigged,” Johnson again referred to the ‘gotcha game’ and said, “We’re not going to engage in it.”
Matthew Yglesias, co-founder of Vox, responded to the interview: “It’s incredible that ‘who won the 2020 election?’ genuinely is a ‘gotcha’ question for Republicans.”
Stephanopoulos asked about Republicans implying that Democrats had a role in the assassination attempts. Depending on who Vance means by “they” in the segment below, it appears that the VP nominee was seeding that same assassination conspiracy theory this past weekend.
Vance: “First, they tried to silence him. When that didn’t work, they tried to bankrupt him. When that didn’t work, they tried to jail him. And with all the hatred they have spewed at President Trump, it was only a matter of time before somebody tried to kill him.” pic.twitter.com/zqTfBWUkaZ
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 5, 2024