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.
Wait, what? This isn’t something to be criticized for. Having a black adopted son and learning the realities of racism in America and learning from it is a good thing. He should be criticized for all the other shit, but not this.
They aren’t complaining that he had a black son, but that he’s an “undercover Democrat” because he’s stated that he learned about racism from the kid, saying things like, “Michael being a Black American, and Jack being white Caucasian. They have different challenges,” he said. “My son Jack has an easier path. He just does.”
Further, there was a question as to if the kid was real since there are no photos. That led to the new clarification:
So if we are to believe him, there are no photos because that is the way the now-adult kid wants it.
Let’s start a new conspiracy theory that he doesn’t actually have a Black son. It’ll go viral in a day. Space lasers!
It’s not at all something to criticize, it’s noble to adopt a child. It’s his party base that will pillory him.
He hasn’t legally adopted this “son” and he’s not shown in any family photos.