WASHINGTON — Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) mentioned Tuesday that the widespread voter fraud he’d warned about all yr turned out to not be an issue in final week’s elections that Republicans occurred to win.
“I’m happy to report to you that because of all the emphasis we placed on that, and because of all the attention the American people put on it, that I think we were able to limit, to a high degree, the amount of fraud and irregularity and many of the things that concerned all Americans after 2020,” Johnson mentioned in response to a query from HuffPost.
Johnson spoke in entrance of the Home steps, at a lectern adorned with a “New Day in America” signal, as Republicans are on the verge of controlling each Congress and the White Home following final week’s decisive victory by former president Donald Trump and Republicans in Senate and Home races.
In Could, talking on the similar location, Johnson had warned that voting by undocumented immigrants offered an “unprecedented and a clear and present danger to the integrity of our election system.” On Tuesday, he mentioned noncitizens could have voted “in some places around the country,” however that it wasn’t an issue for the election outcomes due to efforts by state lawmakers and Republican ballot watchers.
“So that’s a good sign. It’s another hopeful reason, another thing to celebrate about our new day in America,” Johnson mentioned.
Chip Somodevilla by way of Getty Photos
Not all Home races have been referred to as, however Republicans are main in a lot of the remaining contests and can doubtless retain management of the Home with a slim majority with Johnson as speaker. The Louisiana Republican mentioned Republicans would hit the bottom operating subsequent yr with tax cuts and deregulation.
It’s not clear if Republicans’ “America First” agenda may even embrace the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act, the invoice Johnson and Trump mentioned earlier than the election was mandatory to stop Democrats from committing huge voter fraud. Amongst different issues, the proposal would require voters to show their citizenship as a way to register, slightly than merely asking them to attest to it underneath penalty of perjury.
There have been remoted situations of noncitizens voting in federal elections, nevertheless it’s a comparatively uncommon phenomenon and never one thing that’s tipped an election earlier than. Johnson admitted in Could that whereas he knew “intuitively” that noncitizens vote in giant numbers, there’s no proof.
Democracy In The Steadiness
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Nonetheless, Johnson hooked up the SAVE Act to a must-pass authorities funding invoice this fall, and Trump even inspired Republicans to close down the federal government if Democrats wouldn’t comply with the reforms. (Johnson in the end relented and Congress handed a clear authorities funding invoice.)
Trump, for his half, complained Democrats had been “CHEATING” on the poll on the afternoon of Election Day, however didn’t revisit his claims that night as favorable returns got here in.
Johnson steered Tuesday that Trump’s margin of victory was large sufficient that even when noncitizens voted for Democrats in important numbers, it didn’t have an effect on the end result.
“The mantra and what we said at the rallies, and what President Trump was apt to say all the time, is we had to make it too big to rig — and we did,” Johnson mentioned.
