{"id":14614,"date":"2025-10-19T15:47:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-19T15:47:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/speaker-johnson-doubles-down-on-no-kings-criticism-following-demonstrations-nationwide\/"},"modified":"2025-10-19T15:47:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-19T15:47:15","slug":"speaker-johnson-doubles-down-on-no-kings-criticism-following-demonstrations-nationwide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/speaker-johnson-doubles-down-on-no-kings-criticism-following-demonstrations-nationwide\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaker Johnson doubles down on \u2018No Kings\u2019 criticism following demonstrations nationwide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday doubled down on his criticisms of millions of protesters who joined Saturday\u2019s \u201cNo Kings\u201d rallies across the nation, decrying the widely peaceful demonstrations as evidence of \u201ca rise of Marxism in the Democratic Party.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an interview with ABC\u2019s Jonathan Karl on “This Week,” the Louisiana Republican said the protests were \u201cpolitical cover\u201d for Democrats as the government shutdown continues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey needed a stunt,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cThey needed a show. Chuck Schumer has \u2014 needs cover right now. He\u2019s closed the government down because he needs political cover, and this was a part of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Demonstrators gathered across the country in an estimated 2,700 separate “No Kings” rallies Saturday to protest what they call President Donald Trump\u2019s authoritarianism. It was the third mass mobilization against the Trump administration since he returned to the White House in January.<\/p>\n

Reports of the protests<\/a> show demonstrators dressed in costumes of inflatable animals, dancing in the streets and holding signs criticizing Trump and his administration. Organizers estimated that almost 7 million people took part.<\/p>\n

Though he congratulated protesters on a \u201cviolent-free, free speech exercise,\u201d Johnson on Sunday condemned what he said were \u201chateful messages\u201d of the demonstrations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have video and photos of pretty violent rhetoric, calling out the president, saying fascists must die and all the rest. I mean, I don’t think that’s loving speech. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s friendly speech. And I don\u2019t think it\u2019s pro-American to say those kinds of things,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

Johnson had been a vocal critic of the rallies leading up to the weekend. He and other allies of the president<\/a> called the demonstrations \u201cHate America rallies\u201d and sought to tie the protests to Hamas and antifa.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe irony of the message is pretty clear for everyone. If President Trump was a king, the government would be open right now,\u201d Johnson said. \u201cIf President Trump was a king, they would not have been able to engage in that free speech exercise out on The Mall, by the way, which was open because President Trump hasn’t closed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leading up to Saturday\u2019s nationwide protests, Trump told Fox News<\/a> that people are \u201creferring to me as a king. I\u2019m not a king.\u201d But shortly before a Washington rally began Saturday, the Trump War Room account posted an image<\/a> of a smirking Trump wearing a crown.<\/p>\n

Still, Johnson on Sunday said the message of the protests pushed an \u201cun-American\u201d Marxist ideology.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not about the people, it’s about the message. It’s about the ideology,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cIt is a dangerous ideology, and it is anti-American. It goes against everything that we stand for.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday doubled down on his criticisms of millions of protesters who joined Saturday\u2019s \u201cNo Kings\u201d rallies across the nation, decrying the widely peaceful demonstrations as evidence of \u201ca rise of Marxism in the Democratic Party.\u201d In an interview with ABC\u2019s Jonathan Karl on “This Week,” the Louisiana Republican said the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14614\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}