Speaker Mike Johnson had to dodge a question about the Hunter Biden trial during an interview because it debunked his weaponization of government narrative.
Read: The Republican Presumptive Nominee for President is A Convicted Felon
Transcript courtesy CNBC CEO Council Summit:
JAVERS: I want to ask you a little bit about some of the news of the day. We saw this historic conviction of former President Trump last week in New York. You called that a banana republic trial. And I wonder if, as we watch the Hunter Biden trial unfold this week, is that also a banana republic trial?
JOHNSON: I haven’t been able to watch any of that yet. We will see. I hope not. Look, I think what happened in Manhattan was a travesty. And I say that as a former litigator, somebody who was in federal courts for 20 years litigating high-profile cases. I don’t — I — what happened there was unprecedented. The charges were illegitimate, in my view. They targeted a political opponent. They used the judicial system to do it. The entire case is based upon the testimony of a known perjurer, I mean, the whole thing. And it — regardless of how I feel about it or any of us, I’m telling you, the American people are upset about it. As of Saturday, I have traveled and done political events in 118 cities and 29 states in the last six months. And everywhere I go, East Coast, West Coast, Upstate New York, Deep South, it doesn’t matter, the sentiment is the same. People are losing their faith in our institutions because they see this. They see the politicization or the weaponization of the judicial system itself. And as a constitutional attorney and somebody who believes in our institutions and is trying to conserve the greatest nation in the history of the world, I am really concerned about that perception. If you don’t have equal justice under the law, or if the people don’t believe that you do, you lose a very important element of what is necessary to maintain a system of government like ours, a constitutional republic. I think that’s the threat.
Video clip:
Moderator to Mike Johnson: You called Trump’s trial a “banana republic trial.” Is Hunter Biden’s trial also a banana republic trial?
Mike Johnson: I hope not. pic.twitter.com/TpTTwt6dDV
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 4, 2024
Speaker Johnson had to dodge the question because the prosecution of Hunter Biden doesn’t fit the Republican Party’s claim that the President has weaponized the government against his political opponents. If President Biden weaponized the government, that same government would not be prosecuting his son.
Reality exposed the hypocrisy of Speaker Johnson. It seems that Republicans only think that government prosecutions are bad when Donald Trump is the person being prosecuted.
The position and hypocrisy would be bordering on silly if the consequences weren’t so serious.
Mike Johnson attacked the judicial system after the Trump verdict, but he refused to answer when the defendant was Hunter Biden.
The only banana republic in American politics today is Donald Trump’s Republican Party.
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Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association