Speaker Mike Johnson promoted legislation that would require proof of U.S. citizenship to vote in federal elections in a press conference Wednesday, flanked by conservatives who have repeatedly questioned the results of the last presidential contest.
Johnson spoke alongside conservatives like Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), attorney Cleta Mitchell, Tea Party Patriots’ Jenny Beth Martin and former Donald Trump adviser Stephen Miller, many of whom pursued challenges to President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory.
“We all know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections,” Johnson said at the press conference. “But it’s not been something that is easily provable. We don’t have that number.”
The Louisiana Republican was flanked by figures like Mitchell, who helped assemble Trump’s crew of post-election lawyers and participated in a conference call where the former president pressured Georgia officials over the state’s election results. Martin was present at a march in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021, but did not speak at a rally that day that preceded the Capitol attack.
“What we’re talking about today is the 2024 election — nobody can go back and relitigate what happened in 2020,” Johnson said, despite the histories of the people standing next to him.
It’s not the first signal that Johnson has been aligning himself more closely with Trump and his allies. The speaker and the former president have spoken multiple times in recent days as Johnson seeks to fend off threats from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to strip him of the House gavel, and Trump has told Greene to stand down from that effort.
The speaker vowed Tuesday that the House would pass the voter ID bill and send it over to the Senate for consideration, where it stands little chance of advancing. Despite that, Johnson pushed back on the idea the legislation was merely a messaging exercise, saying “we’ll let Chuck Schumer decide” whether to move on the bill.
Lee acknowledged that undocumented immigrants are currently barred from voting under federal law, but added: “There is no valid basis upon which you could oppose this. It would be insane.”
