Politics

Speaker Mike Johnson sheds light on his ‘secret’ with Trump

Published

2 years ago

November 11, 2024

Speaker Mike Johnson sheds light on his ‘secret’ with Trump

There was no shortage of ugly rhetoric at Donald Trump’s event at Madison Square Garden, but one of the comments that generated conversation had nothing to do with racism or bigotry. It instead related to an unscripted moment about the former president and House Speaker Mike Johnson.

“We gotta get the congressmen elected and we gotta get the senators elected, because we can take the Senate pretty easily, and I think with our little secret we’re going to do really well with the House, right? Our little secret is having a big impact,” Trump said while looking in the Louisiana congressman’s direction.

The former president added, while appearing to point at the House speaker, “He and I have a secret. We’ll tell you what it is when the race is over.”

To put it mildly, this caused some unease, especially among Democratic officials. The anxiety did not dissipate when the GOP congressman confirmed that he and his party’s presidential nominee do, in fact, have some kind of secret. “By definition, a secret is not to be shared — and I don’t intend to share this one,” Johnson said in a statement.

Hours later, as The Hill reported, the House speaker elaborated a bit.

“It’s nothing scandalous, but we’re having a ball with this. The media, their heads are exploding. ‘What is the secret?’” Johnson told a crowd of about 90 people on Monday at a rally to support GOP congressional candidate Ryan Mackenzie, after a person in the crowd asked about the comment. “It’s this thing we have about — it’s a get-out-the-vote. It’s one of our tactics on get-out-the-vote,” Johnson said.

To be sure, it’s possible that Trump and Johnson have some kind of “secret” related to get-out-the-vote “tactics,” though there’s reason for some skepticism. After all, the House speaker doesn’t really have much of a role in guiding his party’s GOTV efforts, so there’s no obvious reason why he and the former president would feel the need for a confidential arrangement.

As for Johnson’s suggestion that there’s no real need for scrutiny, perhaps he’s unaware of the broader context. The New York Times reported on the worst-case scenario on Democrats’ minds: “It is a scenario in which Mr. Johnson, who worked with Mr. Trump to undermine the 2020 election results, would again be in cahoots with the former president to steal the election and stop the certification of the results on Jan. 6, 2025, should Vice President Kamala Harris win.”

Look, this isn’t junior high. It’s not as if Trump told Johnson during homeroom which girl he has a crush on, and the congressman feels the need to keep his pal’s information under wraps.

The stakes are vastly higher. A convicted criminal is facing a multi-count federal indictment accusing him of, among other things, illegally trying to overturn an election. Johnson, meanwhile, helped spearhead an ill-fated effort to convince the Supreme Court to keep Trump in power despite the voters’ verdict, and voted with his party to reject certifying the results of a free and fair election.

Johnson also echoed some of the wilder conspiracy theories about the race, and nearly four years later, the Louisiana Republican is still reluctant to acknowledge the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election.

It’s against this backdrop that Trump and Johnson, by their own admission, have a “secret” related to the election. What could possibly go wrong? Quite a bit, actually.

Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for “The Rachel Maddow Show,” the editor of MaddowBlog and an BLN political contributor. He’s also the bestselling author of “Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans’ War on the Recent Past.”

Politics

Trump-backed Jay Feely wins GOP primary in Arizona’s battleground 1st District

Published

15 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Former Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely cruised to victory in Arizona’s 1st District on Tuesday, one of the nation’s most competitive battlegrounds.

Feely, a close ally of President Donald Trump, leveraged Trump’s endorsement to topple former state Rep. Joseph Chaplik.

He’ll face a steep challenge defeating the Democratic nominee in November: The 1st District, which spans the affluent suburbs north of Phoenix, is one of House Democrats’ top targets after Trump won it by just three points in 2024. Feely is looking to keep the seat under GOP control amid a midterm year that presents major headwinds for the party.

Politics

Rep. Andy Biggs wins GOP primary for Arizona governor

Published

15 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

Trump-endorsed Rep. Andy Biggs has won the GOP primary to face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in November, setting up a marquee governor’s race in one of America’s most competitive states.

Biggs, a former chair of the hardline House Freedom Caucus and a close ally of President Donald Trump, easily dealt with his only serious challenger, Rep. David Schweikert, on Tuesday. Before the primary results were official, he had already begun pivoting to the general election against Hobbs, who is seen as one of the most vulnerable Democratic governors this fall.

Republicans feel bullish about their odds of flipping the governorship, after Trump carried the state by five points in 2024. But even though Trump won last time, the state has gradually shifted to pure tossup territory over the past few years, electing Democrats to both Senate seats, as well as the attorney general and secretary of state’s offices.

Hobbs had already shifted her focus to Biggs as well. Her campaign has amassed a significant warchest for the race and has already started running ads. Biggs, given his lack of a significant primary challenge, has been able to hold onto more cash than his GOP rivals, but is still behind Hobbs.

The race will test whether Republicans, who are starting down a potentially bruising midterm cycle, can reclaim the top office of a state that has long been a place of success for the party.

During the Republican primary debate, Biggs spent more time talking about his working relationship with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Arizona Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly than he did flexing his endorsement from Trump or highlighting his House record, including his time atop the Freedom Caucus. Instead, he tried to refocus on his bipartisanship in Congress and his leadership in the state legislature.

“I know how to reach across the aisle,” Biggs said during the debate.

But he will still have to contend with many of his past stances, including his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.

And Hobbs is already working to ensure voters know where Biggs stands on key issues as a longtime member of the House, including his anti-abortion positions and his role in 2020. Her campaign has repeatedly attacked him as “too extreme” for the state and has dubbed him “basement Biggs” for keeping a relatively low profile throughout the GOP primary.

Politics

Trump-backed Mark Lamb wins Arizona House primary despite sex scandals

Published

15 minutes ago

July 22, 2026

Blue Light Newsroom

A scandal-plagued House candidate powered by President Donald Trump’s endorsement won a messy primary Tuesday.

Mark Lamb, the former Pinal County sheriff, overcame a late push from self-funding candidate Daniel Keenan in Arizona’s 5th District. Lamb will enter November as the heavy frontrunner in the deep-red Phoenix-area district to replace Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), who is running for governor.

Keenan had poured nearly $2 million of his own cash into the campaign and attempted to make Lamb’s alleged sexual misconduct and abuse of power central to the race. Lamb has denied the allegations.

But Lamb — bolstered by Trump and Arizona-based Turning Point USA — managed to ward off the attacks.

The race’s outcome reveals the strength of Trump’s endorsement, and it’s the latest example of how willing GOP primary voters have been to accept scandal-ridden candidates favored by the president.

Lamb, who served as sheriff until 2024, earned national notoriety as a gun-toting critic of the Biden administration’s immigration and border policy. He secured Trump’s backing for the 5th District contest last year.

Then in May, the Arizona Republic launched a multi-part investigation alleging that Lamb engaged in a yearslong pattern of sending sexual images and instigating intimate encounters between him, his wife and others. One woman involved, Jillian Stannard, accused Lamb of encouraging her husband to have sex with other women, including Lamb’s wife. She also alleged that Lamb threatened her, saying there would be consequences, when Stannard raised concerns to religious leaders.

Screenshots the Republic obtained of messages with another woman, Tammy Peacock, suggest Lamb — then a sitting county sheriff — threatened to leverage Arizona’s revenge porn law against her.

In a statement last week, Lamb spokesperson Ed Morabito told Blue Light News that “these allegations are false and come from long-discredited political opponents.”

Lamb did not lose any significant endorsements in the wake of the scandals — Trump reinforced his endorsement in mid-July — even as Keenan made the allegations central to his campaign.