In press conference remarks for the books, Speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) somehow found it within himself this week to claim that “we all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections.” Hint: no, we don’t.
A transcript of his remarks shared by NBC News goes as follows: “We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections. But it’s not been something that is easily provable. We don’t have that number. This legislation will allow us to do exactly that. It will prevent that from happening. And if someone tries to do it, it will now be unlawful within the states. We’ll have a mechanism to prove whether they are or not.”
If the idea of a “lot” of undocumented immigrants voting in federal elections isn’t “provable,” then has the Speaker considered that’s maybe because it’s not happening? What else offers a basis for even harboring the idea, if there isn’t any evidence? Vibes? Does Johnson want to expend extensive legislative time and effort going after groups of people for imagined actions where the basis for the allegations is just… vibes? Are there any serious legislators left among Republicans currently in the House?
Anyway, Johnson was speaking on the occasion of a legislative push from conservatives targeting voting by undocumented immigrants, though almost anything — if not literally everything — that’s this partisan potentially coming out of the House while it’s under narrow Republican control is presumably doomed on account of continuing Democratic control of the Senate and White House.
Notably, Johnson — who holds the top role in his legislative chamber — helped advance the Congressional targeting after the last presidential election of its outcome, meaning Joe Biden’s victory, though all of the ideas from Republicans in the House and Senate targeting Biden’s electoral votes basically failed, and the Democrat became and remains the next president. Johnson remains a Trump ally.
