Conservatives helped Congressman Mike Johnson (R-La.) win the job as U.S. Speaker of the House of Representatives, but are wondering about their choice after comments he made about his sons after George Floyd’s death in 2020 came to light.
Johnson said his White biological son, Jack, has had an easier time of it than his adopted Black son, Michael, simply because of skin color. Surprisingly, Johnson went a step further, calling for “systematic change” and “transformative solutions,” and said that he was “outraged” over Floyd’s murder at the hands of White police officer Derek Chauvin.
The MAGA crowd is particularly up in arms about his comments, which were reported by mediaite.com, saying that Johnson had issued a “full-fledged endorsement of the Left’s racial narrative,” and that Johnson had “completely internalized left-wing racial libel about white supremacy and privilege.”
Laura Loomer, a far-right activist completely devoted to former President Donald Trump, went a step further, posing this question: “Is he an undercover Democrat? What kind of MAGA Republican says something like this?”
Here’s what Johnson said in an interview with Walter Isaacson in 2020 that some conservatives say should have been “completely disqualifying” for him to be the Speaker.
Asked what Floyd’s death had taught him, Johnson gave this thoughtful and expansive answer:
“You know, what [it’s] taught me is we now have four other children of our own. And my oldest son, Jack, ironically, this year is 14. And I’ve thought often through all these ordeals over the last couple of weeks about the difference in the experiences between my two 14-year-old sons, Michael being a Black American and Jack being White Caucasian. They have different challenges. My son Jack has an easier path. He just does. The interesting thing about both of these kids, Michael and Jack, is they’re both handsome, articulate, really talented kids, gifted by God to do lots of things. But the reality is — and no one can tell me otherwise — my son Michael had a harder time than my son Jack is going to have simply because of the color of his skin. And that’s a reality. It’s an uncomfortable, painful one to acknowledge, but people have to recognize that’s a fact.”
Liberals aren’t crazy about Johnson either, especially after saying President Biden’s victory was “rigged” by software from “Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela,” though the South American dictator had been dead for seven years by that time.
