The Dreadful Mike Johnson

Mike Johnson is at it again, this time with George Stephanopoulos. Two short guys, one big argument, one good interviewer, and one lying sack of human manure:

 

Stephanopoulos: “Do you believe it's appropriate to use American cities as training for the U.S. military calling those people in the American city as the enemy within?”

Johnson: “I'm not going to comment on your characterization of what the President said.” pic.twitter.com/5pPFmaRZBi

— The Bulwark (@BulwarkOnline) October 1, 2025

(Stephanopoulos) The President also said at the Pentagon yesterday that he wants cities to be used as training grounds for the American military. Is this the highest and best use of the US military? Is this the right way to train them?

(Johnson) I don't serve at the Pentagon. I run the House of Representatives. And what we need to be talking about today is the harm the American people are going to feel because of what Chuck Schumer is doing. Let me tell you...

(Stephanopoulos) Well, hold on a second. No, answer the question. As Speaker of the House, do you believe it is appropriate to use American cities as training grounds, calling those people in American cities "the army within." I'm asking you, as Speaker of the House, do you think that's appropriate?

(Johnson) I'm not going to comment on your characterization of what the President said.

(Crosstalk)

(Johnson) Well, you can take his quote out of context, as you often do. I don't thin that's fair to the President. I'll tell you what he's done, though. He's put National Guard troops here in D.C. and cleaned up the crime problem. People can walk.....

In his speech to military generals he summoned to the Marine base at Quantico, Virginia, President Trump, with his characteristic mixture of belligerence and child-like behavior, spewed lies and other disinformation. Speaker Johnson claimed Stephanopoulos had taken Donald's "quote out of context." Stephanopoulos noted that Trump had said that he "wants cities to be used as training grounds for the American military" and asked Johnson if he believed it "appropriate to use American cities as training grounds, calling those people in American cities 'the army within'."      

Here, in context- comments before and after the pertinent remark included- is what the President stated beginning at 37:21 and afterward, at 41:58 (applicable phrases in italics):

It's -- they're just -- they don't understand. They've destroyed the -- the image of media now is at the lowest point it's ever been. It's lower than Congress. Can you believe that? It's something. But together, with many of you in the room, we've brought back the fundamental principle that defending the homeland is the military's first and most important priority.

That's what it is. Only in recent decades did politicians somehow come to believe that our job is to police the far reaches of Kenya and Somalia, while America is under invasion from within. We're under invasion from within, no different than a foreign enemy, but more difficult in many ways because they don't wear uniforms.

At least when they're wearing a uniform, you can take them out. These people don't have uniforms. But we are under invasion from within. We're stopping it very quickly. After spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries, with your help, we're defending the borders of our country from now on. We're not going to let this happen.

Biden let people come in from prisons, mental institutions, drug dealers, murderers....

****

You know, we had millions coming in, pouring in. 25 million all told and of those 25 million, many of them should never be in our country. They would take their worst people and their people from prisons and jail and they put them in a caravan and they'd walk up. CNN was interviewing one person. Oh, why are you coming?

I want freedom. Good. Were you in jail? Yes. For what? Murder. I said, you're in for -- you had to see this anchor, a young woman. She's like I couldn't believe. She'll probably lose her job, but -- because the left doesn't want to hear that. But we're running it based on common sense and based on love of our country.

But I want to salute every service member who has helped us carry out this critical mission. It's really a very important mission. And I told Pete, we should use some of these dangerous cities as training grounds for our military National Guard, but military, because we're going into Chicago very soon. That's a big city, with an incompetent governor, stupid governor, stupid.

They threw him out of his family business....

Stephanopoulos wisely ended the segment with "Mr. Speaker, thank you . Nothing I said about the President was out of context. Those were direct quotes from the President. Thank you for your time." 

Johnson then slipped in "cherry picked, out of a long speech."  "Cherry picked means "select the best or most desirable;" in this case, only those items the interviewer wanted to mention.  The GOP has as its leader- with no evident dissatisfaction- in the House of Representatives a guy who evidently believes that calling major American cities training grounds for the US military, and the people therein, is trivial. That underscores the importance of unmasking Republican toadies and in this case, doing so skillfully.

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