Sky York Journal
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) — who has repeatedly questioned the polls showing Democrats flipping the House of Representatives — insisted Tuesday there will be a “peaceful transfer of power” following the midterm elections.
Johnson called the question asking him to commit to a peaceful transfer of power in January regardless of what the results are “silly,” saying the Constitution will be followed.
“Of course, we’ll have a peaceful transfer of power, but it will not be transferring because we are going to keep the majority, and I’m going to be the Speaker of the House, and I will keep steady hands at the wheel, OK?” Johnson said during a campaign stop he attended in support of Rep. Mike Lawler’s (R-NY) re-election campaign.
Johnson’s response comes as doomsday scenarios of the Speaker or the current House Republican majority refusing to seat incoming Democrats following the election has been percolating. Democrats fear a kind of re-run of Jan. 6, 2021 with Republican members of Congress alleging fraud and attempting various baroque schemes to block legislators from being seated on Jan. 3, 2027.
“Look, you know my background. I’m a constitutional attorney. We’re going to follow the Constitution,” Johnson continued. “The Constitution says when a state certifies the election of members of Congress, then they are administered the oath. That’s what I’ll be doing on Jan. 3 to everybody who’s there.”
“I may not like some of those outcomes, but that’s our system,” he added. “And for anybody to suggest otherwise is absurd.”
Democrats are and have been for weeks favored to take back control of the House of Representatives. But Johnson has been tirelessly insisting the polls those predictions are based on are badly skewed.
During the same press briefing, Johnson insisted people should not believe the polls, claiming it’s a tactic to manipulate the Republican voter turnout.
“The polling is wrong. I’ve been saying this in all the national media. They are trying to suppress and depress the Republican turnout in the elections,” Johnson said. “Don’t believe the polls.”
And just a day before during an interview with Fox News, Johnson said: “I think [polls are] even further off this time because more and more Republicans are unwilling to participate in these surveys. They don’t want to give their information to someone on the phone…”
The fears around election interference are widespread ahead of the election as President Donald Trump continues to cast doubt on the security of the upcoming elections.
He has repeatedly claimed there is “rampant” fraud in the U.S. elections, going as far as announcing a $1 million reward for voter fraud tips on Monday — less than 10 days ahead of Election Day.
The Trump administration has also sued several states — including California and Alaska — ahead of Tuesday’s elections, attacking the states with various Trump grievances. In California, the fight is over the supposed claims of noncitizen voting and in Alaska — where current Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) is in a tight race against Democrat Mary Peltola — it is to try and block the election certification with claims of voter confusion.
