Johnson defends Trump’s rigged elections claim — says it’s 'impossible to prove'

President Donald Trump just received a public assist from House Speaker Mike Johnson in his unsubstantiated claims that California’s elections have been stolen — but Johnson himself admitted that Trump’s claims are “impossible to prove.”

“I'm not saying it's rigged,” Johnson told CNN’s Manu Raju on Monday. “I'm saying it stinks to high heaven. And everybody knows that. Let's remove the appearance of impropriety. Let's have, what a concept, let's have votes on an election the day of the election. That's what many states are able to do. I think California is playing around with this.”

When Raju asked whether Johnson has any evidence that the election is being rigged, the House Speaker admitted that he does not.

“I don't — some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream that it is impossible to prove,” Johnson told Raju. “But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here. And that's a concern. We need people to believe in the integrity of our election system.”

Johnson has been accused of controlling the House Republicans rather than serving the traditional presidential role of respecting the balance of power between the executive and legislature. In fact, NOTUS reported on Monday that Trump has so much power over the House, he has joked that he and not Johnson is in fact the real House Speaker.

“I have two jobs: being president and being speaker,” Trump once teased Johnson while other lawmakers watched him do it. Trump’s joke refers to Johnson repeatedly going to the president to get potentially defecting Republicans in line behind his agenda, with Johnson himself repeatedly failing to do so.

For example, in 2025 Trump reportedly yelled at Rep. Victoria Spartz (R-Ind.) over the phone until she started crying and walked away, according to what two sources told NOTUS. After she left, Trump continued to rant to the remaining lawmakers who were present for her humiliation.

“I have no f—— idea what she just said," Trump told the other members.

That incident, according to NOTUS, was merely one of many. Two sources told NOTUS that House members are instructed to check with the White House before proposing legislation. One anonymous House Republican lawmaker told NOTUS that as a result, House Speaker Johnson and the rest of that body’s leaders have failed in their basic legislative duties.

This is "a total shirking of responsibilities to the White House,” the source told NOTUS. “Everything has to be preordained and pre-blessed, and there’s very little that we’re able to have our own will on. We should be empowered to pass our own priorities, not just follow what the mandate of the day is.”

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