Mike Johnson’s meteoric elevation from an under-the-radar congressman from Louisiana to second-in-line to the U.S. presidency despatched journalists, Democrats and Republicans alike to uncover details about the non-public {and professional} historical past of probably the most right-wing and least skilled Home Speaker in historical past, who took the highest job on Wednesday.
On the day Johnson was voted in, a number of main right-wing social media accounts on X, previously often known as Twitter, started circulating clips of an interview Johnson gave to PBS in 2020, by which he instructed journalist Walter Isaacson that the police killing of George Floyd was “an act of homicide” and known as for “systemic change.” Notably, Johnson mentioned within the interview that he had discovered about racism in America by the expertise of elevating a Black son, Michael.
Johnson mentioned his Black son had a tougher life than his white son “merely due to the colour of his pores and skin.” “Michael being a Black American, and Jack being white Caucasian. They’ve totally different challenges,” he mentioned. “My son Jack has a neater path. He simply does.”
Day by day Wire podcaster Matt Walsh described Johnson’s feedback as a “full-fledged endorsement of the Left’s racial narrative,” whereas far-right anti-Muslim activist Laura Loomer {accused} the brand new Speaker of being an “undercover Democrat.” Professional-DeSantis conservative influencer Pedro Gonzalez wrote that Johnson had “utterly internalized left-wing racial libel about white supremacy and privilege.”
Speaking Factors Memo’s Josh Marshall famous on Friday that there have been no images of Michael on Johnson’s Home web site or his Fb web page. His son additionally doesn’t seem in Johnson’s official biography.
Hypothesis about whether or not Michael was an actual particular person prompted Johnson’s workplace to make clear. “When Speaker Johnson first ran for Congress in 2016, he and his spouse, Kelly, spoke to their son Michael—who they took in as newlyweds when Michael was 14 years outdated,” mentioned Corinne Day, Johnson’s communications director, in an announcement first reported by Newsweek. “On the time of the Speaker’s election to Congress, Michael was an grownup with a household of his personal. He requested to not be concerned of their new public life.” Day added that Johnson “maintains a detailed relationship with Michael to today.”
Day instructed Newsweek that the Johnson household didn’t formally undertake Michael due to the “prolonged … course of,” and declined to say whether or not Michael used the identical surname because the household.
Johnson’s Black son got here up in 2019, when Johnson testified earlier than a subcommittee of the Home Judiciary Committee contemplating a decision that may set up a fee to look at attainable reparations proposals. In feedback that drew boos from some within the listening to, Johnson mentioned that he had requested his son concerning the thought of reparations for slavery, and that his son mentioned he opposed it.
In his first main interview after ascending to the highest Home job final week, Johnson appeared to downplay his earlier feedback about how racism affected Michael’s life. “Having raised two 14-year-old boys in America and the state of Louisiana, they’d totally different experiences,” he instructed Fox Information’ Sean Hannity. “And I’m not so certain it was all about pores and skin colour, however it’s about tradition and society. Michael, our first, got here from a extremely troubled background and had a whole lot of challenges.”
