House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) contended that former President Donald Trump has “fun at the rallies” when defending the Republican presidential candidate telling a suggestive story to rally attendees on Saturday.
Trump spoke at a rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, during which he spent 12 minutes talking about the late golfer Arnold Palmer, which included a reference to Palmer’s genitalia. Johnson was pressed by CNN’s Jake Tapper on whether this type of story was an indication Trump is becoming less focused in his speeches, prompting the House speaker to contend that Trump’s history from his first presidential term is what people care about.
“So he has fun at the rallies, he says things that are off the cuff. But I‘m telling you, I‘ve been in those events, I‘ve been in those arenas, and people have a great time at those arenas,” Johnson said on CNN’s State of the Union. “So you can cherry pick a few words or lines out of a two-hour event, we could do that with Kamala Harris after a 20-minute event because she does word salads and she couldn‘t hold court like that without a teleprompter. We all know that. These are the facts, the American people see it, and the media can pick it apart, but people are going to vote. They‘re going to vote what‘s best for their family, and they see that in Trump.”
Johnson also defended Trump’s recent comments about potentially deploying the military to protect the nation from “radical left lunatics.” The House speaker claimed he “did not hear” Trump wanting to use the military against his political opponents, and that “you got two different clips” in different contexts.
Johnson added that Trump has dealt with multiple “baseless” political attacks since he announced his first run for president back in 2015, and his political opponents have done “real damage in the American psyche.” He then pointed to how Vice President Kamala Harris has claimed Trump is “dangerous” to the United States, while some of his colleagues in the House have called for Trump to be extinguished.
“Look, Trump is talking about restoring law and order and I‘m telling you, you can mock it, people in the media can mock it, but that resonates with the American people,” Johnson said. “They are sick of being afraid on the streets of their cities.”
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Trump has defended his choice of words when deeming certain political opponents the “enemy from within,” both during a Fox News interview on Sunday and a podcast appearance this past week. In the Fox News interview, Trump argued his political opponents have “weaponized the government against me,” a reference to the myriad of legal battles Trump has dealt with since leaving the White House.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R-VA) also defended Trump’s language, suggesting the former president was actually talking about illegal immigrants and human traffickers in the country.
