Speaker Mike Johnson has become media shy nearly five months into his bruising tenure as House leader — and he’s being called out for using childish tactics to hide.
Before becoming the victor in the bloody battle for the gavel, Johnson (R-LA) was known to be a chatty congressman who would routinely stop to talk with reporters, New York Times’ congressional correspondent Annie Karni wrote Friday.
Now, however, as he’s hounded by the right wing of his party, under pressure to stop a government shutdown and has Trump breathing down his neck on border discussions, he’s less eager to talk.
And Karni said his avoidance is verging on the ridiculous.
“After spending less than six minutes answering questions at a news conference, Mr. Johnson shut down reporters’ shouted questions with a silent cue, like a cab light switched off, signaling he was no longer available: He held his smartphone phone to his ear and speed-walked out of sight,” she wrote.
“It is a ploy that Mr. Johnson has used frequently to dodge questions since the fall.”
ALSO READ: Trump goes silent on ‘serious voter fraud’ after long trashing New Hampshire as ‘rigged’
She called it, “One of the most common tactics in a member of Congress’s playbook … talking, or pretending to talk, on the phone.
“These days, as he strides through the Capitol from his office to the House floor and back, Mr. Johnson’s preferred posture is inaccessible. And it most often involves using his iPhone as his buffer.”
She went on, “Is it a fake phone call, a sick kid or the president of the United States? It’s hard for journalists to tell who, if anyone, is on the other end of the line — and that is the point.”
Another Johnson tactic that Karni has noticed, when a phone isn’t available, is Johnson taking notes or reviewing papers as he walked.
Johnson isn’t the first to hide behind a phone, Karni wrote.
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) pretended to be on a call in June 2022 as reporters asked him about his role in trying to deliver a slate of fake electors
“I’m on the phone,” he said.
“No, you’re not — I can see your phone; I can see your screen,” a reporter for NBC News told him.
