Speaker Johnson refuses to cave when George Stephanopoulos demands he accept narrative about Eric Trump comments

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) refused to surrender Sunday when pressed by ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos about Eric Trump's comments criticizing Democrats.

Stephanopoulos said Eric Trump claimed over the weekend that Democrats were “behind the plot to assassinate” former President Donald Trump. The lifelong Democrat then asked Johnson a probing question.

“This case is unprecedented. They attacked him in every possible way. They try to defame his character every day.”

“So are the president and his family right to suggest that Democrats are behind the plot to assassinate him?” Stephanopoulos asked.

Johnson initially explained that he had not heard the full context of Eric Trump's remarks and told Stephanopoulos that he did not believe that Eric was claiming that “Democrats attempted an assassination attempt.” .

Rather, Johnson said Eric Trump is a Democrat who argues that Donald Trump is an existential threat to American democracy that must be stopped or America will cease to exist. He added that he thought he was referring to rhetoric.

“It's complete nonsense,” Johnson said. “And they've driven dangerous people to dangerous behavior — the rhetoric is that. I think that's an objective fact that everyone can agree on. We need to turn the volume down.”

Unfortunately, that answer wasn't good enough for Stephanopoulos. Instead, the anchor doubled down on the question after reading Eric Trump's statement out of context.

As quoted by Stephanopoulos, Eric Trump said:

they tried to kill him. They tried to kill him and it was because of the Democrats that they couldn't do anything right.

But Mr. Johnson did not give up. After reiterating that we need to see the full context of Eric Trump's remarks to properly understand them, Johnson explained what Eric meant.

“But what they are referring to is the absolutely public attack that Democrats have waged against President Trump since the day he came down that golden escalator in 2016.” [sic]May I? '' said Johnson. “This lawsuit is unprecedented. They attacked him in every possible way. They try to defame his character every day. And people are tired of it. That's why so many people at the rally People come together. People are tired of it.”

In response, Mr Stephanopoulos accused Mr Johnson of “actually repeating the accusation” before reading Eric Trump's statement again.

“What more do you need?!” Stephanopoulos demanded. “Do you support that statement?”

Mr Johnson replied: “I'm not going to analyze the words people say at these rallies.'' “I could give you pages and pages of crazy comments by leading Democrats in this country, but that's not what this problem is about. We have to talk about the challenges of the war, perhaps civil issues. Let's forget all the political nonsense and talk about how to get out of this mess. ”

Still unsatisfied, Mr. Stephanopoulos pursued the issue one last time, but received the same answer from Mr. Johnson as before.

“So it's clear that the Democrats are not going to condemn the base's suggestion that they were behind the assassination attempt on Donald Trump,” Stephanopoulos snorted and took a breath before asking a new question. .

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