'Don't know what he's smoking': Strategist blasts Mike Johnson's latest deflection

A Democratic strategist mocked House speaker Mike Johnson's claim that town hall meetings hosted by Republican lawmakers have been populated by paid protesters.

Lawmakers have been facing constituents angry about cuts to federal programs by Donald Trump and Elon Musk, and they've been demanding that congressional Republicans step up and stop them, and CNN conservative Shermichael Singleton entertained Johnson's notion that those dramatic confrontations were staged by Democratic plants.

"I think the speaker's point is Democrats are obviously going to take advantage of this opportunity politically," Singleton said, "and as a strategist, if I were a Democratic strategist, you would be smart, if you're trying to win back the majority to say, 'Look at what Republicans are doing and how this is negatively impacting you.' I certainly understand that, which again, goes back to my point, how do we as Republicans avoid giving that opportunity to Democrats to message against Republicans as we prepare to increase the majority in the House? I don't think this is the way to do it. I think there's a way to make the cuts, there's a way to alleviate unnecessary workers, there's a way to save more money for the taxpayers while also maintaining a Republican majority, and I don't think this is quite the way that I would personally want to do it."

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Some of the town hall attendees and callers into talk radio programs identify themselves as Republicans before blasting drastic cuts to the federal workforce and programs that American rely on, and Democratic strategist Julie Roginsky said Johnson's deflection was absurd.

"The problem for Republicans is that they are subsumed by the cult of Donald Trump, and they're terrified of being primaried by somebody who Trump supports," Roginsky said. "They're terrified of having Elon Musk spend money against them in primaries. On the other hand, if Mike Johnson thinks that the people in his state of Louisiana, which has a disproportionately large number of people who are on Medicaid, are protesting because they're paid, as opposed to the fact that they're scared and terrified that he's taking their health care away, I don't know what he's smoking, but I want some of that because that's absolutely contrary to every single fact that's been on the ground."

"There's no way that people are not terrified that their health care is being taken away, that their benefits are being taken away, all to give tax breaks to the wealthiest among us, most of whom do not live in Louisiana, his home state," she added. "So he's told people not to do town halls anymore, which I find fascinating because he knows, he knows that this doesn't benefit him politically, and yet, if he doesn't want his members doing town halls, the town halls will come to them. They cannot escape what they're doing because it's their constituents who are being harmed."

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