"We had a peaceful transfer of power": Speaker Johnson tries to memory-hole Jan. 6

The head of the House tried to gloss over the events of Jan. 6 during a visit to "Meet The Press"

Published October 13, 2024 1:42PM (EDT)

U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) departs from a news conference with House Republican Caucus leadership at the U.S. Capitol on September 24, 2024 in Washington, DC. House Republicans are working towards agreeing to pass a continuing resolution on the House floor to fund the government through December 20th. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) departs from a news conference with House Republican Caucus leadership at the U.S. Capitol on September 24, 2024 in Washington, DC. House Republicans are working towards agreeing to pass a continuing resolution on the House floor to fund the government through December 20th. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Members of Congress should know better than most that there was nothing calm and tidy about January 6, 2021.  

Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson tried to play off the transition between the Donald Trump regime and the current administration of Joe Biden as business as usual when he stopped by "Meet the Press" on Sunday. 

While being grilled on whether he would certify the upcoming election if Kamala Harris were to win, Johnson noted that he would certify the winner if the elections were "free and fair."

"Of course, I'm going to follow the Constitution. I'm going to follow the law. That's my job. That's my duty," he said. "I took an oath to do that."

Johnson went on to say that he believes Trump's margin of victory will be so massive that there will be no turmoil around the election results. Harris and Trump have been polling closely in recent weeks, with many results in key states falling within the polls' margin of error. 

"I think this [margin's] going to be so large there will be no question," he said. "I think Donald J. Trump is your next president and that can't happen soon enough."

When host Kristen Welker pinned Johnson on his repeated qualifier that he'd certify a "free and fair" election, Johnson seemed to forget the chaotic  days around Biden's inauguration. 

"The point is the process works. We have the peaceful transfer of power. We did in 2020, we will in 2024," he said. "Everybody can sigh and take a deep breath."

Johnson's comments that the transfer of power was "peaceful" are particularly galling in the wake of Jack Smith's most-recent bombshell filing in Trump's ongoing election interference case. Those documents made it clear just how far Trump was eilling to go to interrupt the transfer of the executive branch to Joe Biden and underlined his encouragement of a mob that stormed the Capitol.


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