Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday he sees President Biden’s behavior deteriorating behind the scenes and suggested Republicans are discussing investigating a Democratic cover-up.
But Johnson (R-Louisiana) also suggested Republicans are likely to challenge any efforts by Democrats to replace Biden at the top of the list, as Republican nominee Donald Trump continues to open up a large lead over Biden in recent polls.
“I did not want to speak publicly about my personal interactions with the president because I was concerned about appearing weak on the world stage at a very dangerous time.“, Johnson said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“But now that the secrets are out, the Republican chairman will affirm what everyone else knows and has seen: Democrats have been engaged in a major cover-up here,” the GOP leader said.
Johnson said Biden, 81, “is a very strong man. [the job] He is no longer “the Joe Biden of four years ago.”
The Republican chairman said: [Biden’s] Critics say he took responsibility for his actions, saying “time has taken its toll” on him, as the damage became clear during his debate with Trump in June.
Host Jake Tapper was surprised by Johnson’s reference to a “cover-up,” asking, “Is this something that should be seriously investigated by Congress or law enforcement?”
““Well, that’s something that’s been discussed,” Johnson responded, without elaborating. “Democratic leaders in Congress and elsewhere have been on television regularly saying that Joe Biden is beating us.”
“It’s ridiculous. They all knew it wasn’t true,” Johnson said. “They lied about his abilities, and now the whole country knows, and they’ve painted themselves into a corner.”
Earlier in the interview, Johnson was asked whether he would support legal efforts to block Democrats from removing Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris from the running.
“They’ve got a real problem,” the Republican chairman said of Democrats. “In some of these states, it’s a real hurdle, they’ve got a real problem with replacing a top candidate. Joe Biden was elected through 14 million long, little d’s, the democratic process..
“It will be very interesting to see if the Democrats, the so-called democratic party, somewhere behind the scenes, they swap out their candidate and put someone else at the top. I mean, I think there will be legal obstacles in some states and there will be litigation,” he predicted.
Several Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), have expressed concern that if the party were to swap Biden for Harris at the last minute, they would be vulnerable to Republican-backed legal attacks.
As things stand, Biden is expected to be crowned the Democratic Party’s standard-bearer in the coming weeks ahead of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next month.
Still, nearly 30 Democratic lawmakers have already publicly called on Biden to resign. So far, Biden has refused to step down, stating he is “very committed” to seeing his reelection campaign through.
But there is growing pressure for him to leave the school.
Meanwhile, Johnson also detailed plans to convene a bipartisan special committee to investigate the Secret Service over the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump, 78.
“The reason this task force is important is because we need precision. We need to act quickly. We need to give the American people answers and accountability. They deserve that,” Johnson said.
“We’re going to get to the truth. This will be a bipartisan task force with subpoena power that will act swiftly, get to the heart of the matter, extract answers and accountability, and make sure this never happens again.”
The speaker was tight-lipped about details such as the task force’s leadership but said he would reveal more about that information on Monday.
