Let's stop giving Mike Johnson and John Kennedy a pass on their hypocrisy
They claim they’re guided by faith and the Constitution, so reporters should start asking them about that more often
Many of us who follow politics have become cynical and inured to the hypocrisy and double standards that are the usual fare in the halls of Congress and every state legislature.
The default position these days is to assume that few politicians mean what they say. Much of the political analysis out of Washington takes this into account, factoring all the lies and deceit into the calculus of almost every issue.
This often frees many journalists and pundits from doing the deeper analysis they dislike and allows them to focus exclusively on the politics they love.
How about we stop doing that?
And how about we take seriously what politicians like U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson say about how faith guides their decisions?
When he became speaker in October 2023, Johnson told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he was “a Bible-believing Christian” and claimed that if we wanted to understand his approach to politics, we should “pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview.”
Instead of assuming Johnson is lying and then moving on to examine the political intrigue, how about we take his statement seriously and ask him the following questions:
How does your support for Trump’s hate-filled anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric square with your faith?
How does your enthusiastic support of a convicted criminal, adjudicated rapist, and serial sex abuser for president square with your faith?
How does your support for Trump’s attorney general nominee, former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz — accused of child rape — square with your faith?
How does your support for alleged sexual abuser Pete Hegseth as Defense secretary square with your faith?
You get the idea.
We shouldn’t let Johnson and other politicians use their alleged religious beliefs as political instruments when it’s convenient for them only to allow them to forsake most of what they claim to believe when Trump comes calling.
If you claim that a religious belief system guides all your policy decisions, your faith is fair game for questions when you make a policy decision.
You should be forced to defend your policies but also to explain and defend a perverted view of your faith.
If reporters and others started asking Johnson how supporting an alleged sex trafficker like Matt Gaetz comports with his faith, I doubt it would prompt in Johnson a reexamination of his attitude toward Gaetz.
But repeatedly asking him to defend his faith would make it clear to everyone that the overriding image he’s carefully crafted for himself (man of God, follower of Jesus, guided only by the scriptures) is a lie.
The same applies to U.S. Sen. John Kennedy, who claims to value knowledge of and strict adherence to the law when he assesses nominees to the federal bench and Justice Department positions.
“People have been nominated for a lifetime position,” Kennedy says, explaining why he’s so tough on Biden administration judicial nominees when they come before the Senate Judiciary Committee on which he serves. “And so we’ve got to put the best women and the best men that we can on the bench. That starts with knowing the law book from an L.L. Bean catalog.”
Presumably, Kennedy’s standards for the integrity and legal skills of the nation’s top law enforcement officer are as high — or even higher — than those for a district court appointment.
If so, reporters should not assume that Kennedy is the hypocrite he is and move on to writing about the political implications of these nominations.
Instead, they should hold him to the standard he’s set for himself and demand to know if he will question and assess Gaetz and the rest of Trump’s Justice Department nominees by the standard he’s articulated for Biden’s nominees.
I’m not saying that the hypocrisy of Johnson, Kennedy, and those like them should be the only lens through which we view these monstrously grotesque Trump nominees, but they should be a prominent part of the story.
Giving them a pass in our haste to write about the political intrigue does not hold them to account as we should. And reporters and pundits who do it are failing their readers.
And I’d say the same standards apply to you and me in our interactions with these elected officials.
Let’s stop calling Johnson’s office and saying, “Please tell Speaker Johnson to oppose Matt Gaetz because he’s a horrible person who shouldn’t be within 1,000 yards of the Justice Department.”
Instead, consider something like, “Please tell Speaker Johnson that his support of someone like Matt Gaetz is not consistent with his professed Christian faith. No leader who claims to be guided by the precepts of Jesus would want the nation’s justice system led by such a degenerate.”
My new book: You Are My Sunshine
I’ve got a new book coming in February. LSU Press will publish You Are My Sunshine: Jimmie Davis and the Biography of a Song.
I’m proud of some of the early reviews, including this one from Adam Fairclough, author of Race and Democracy: The Civil Rights Struggle in Louisiana, 1915–1972:
“Robert Mann, who knows more about Louisiana politics than just about anyone, draws upon his love of country music to give us a fascinating account of two-time governor Jimmie Davis. Forever associated with ‘You Are My Sunshine,’ Davis used this song as the foundation for a dual career as politician and musical performer.
Mann’s exploration of the song’s obscure origins, widespread appeal, and myriad recordings is a masterpiece of cultural history, and his analysis of Davis’s political transformation from easygoing moderate to outspoken segregationist is spot-on. But you don’t need to be a country music fan or a student of Louisiana politics to enjoy this book. Mann’s blend of creative scholarship and exuberant prose is sure to attract a much wider audience. It is a thoroughly rewarding, and illuminating, read.”
If you’d like to pre-order a signed, personalized copy from me, you can do so at this link.
You can also order signed, personalized copies of my other books there.
Those titles include Kingfish U: Huey Long and LSU, Becoming Ronald Reagan: The Rise of a Conservative Icon, and Daisy Petals and Mushrooms Clouds: LBJ, Barry Goldwater and the Ad that Changed American Politics.
They make great Christmas gifts for the political junkies in your life.
The one thing which MTG has said with which I agree is that, if we are going to scrutinize and hold one member of Congress accountable for alleged and actual transgressions, we should be willing to hold them all to that same standard. She even included herself. Both Kennedy and Johnson claim to be constitutional experts, but they rarely exhibit it. Johnson is the kind of Christian who drives people away from, not toward, organized religion and he is in no position to be teaching any Gospel but his own. So Marjorie Taylor Greene, if nothing else, in this case, is less hypocritical than either of these guys. That said, I wouldn't vote for any of them for anything.
I believe Johnson, Kennedy & their ilk are still in the Old Testament & haven’t read the New Testament yet!