Mike Johnson’s meteoric elevation from an under-the-radar congressman from Louisiana to second-in-line to the U.S. presidency sent journalists, Democrats and Republicans alike to uncover information about the personal and professional history of the most right-wing and least experienced House Speaker in history, who took the top job on Wednesday.
On the day Johnson was voted in, several major right-wing social media accounts on X, formerly known as Twitter, began circulating clips of an interview Johnson gave to PBS in 2020, in which he told journalist Walter Isaacson that the police killing of George Floyd was “an act of murder” and called for “systemic change.” Notably, Johnson said in the interview that he had learned about racism in America through the experience of raising a Black son, Michael.
I’m not saying you’re wrong. But the right has a habit of only showing empathy only when it directly affects them.
Black people deserve protection from the law, yes. But let’s not pretend that he’d change his tune about LGBT people in a split second if his son turned out to be gay or trans.
Black people don’t deserve protection from the law. Black people deserve equal treatment under the law.