CNN's Phil Mattingly chided Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Monday after Johnson offered a startling answer to a reporter asking about alleged election fraud in California.
Republicans have been up in arms since Sunday after Democrat Nithya Raman leapfrogged Republican Spencer Pratt, a reality TV personality, in the Los Angeles mayoral primary race. Raman built up her lead as a slew of mail-in ballots went her way, a trend that analysts at the Los Angeles Times expect to continue through the deadline to receive ballots on Tuesday.
President Donald Trump and several high-ranking Republican lawmakers have claimed, without evidence, that the election appears to have been rigged.
"I'm saying it stinks to high heaven," Johnson said on Monday when he was asked about the results by CNN's Manu Raju. "And everybody knows that. I think California is playing around with this."
"But what evidence is there to prove this was rigged?" Raju replied.
"Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream, it is impossible to prove," Johnson said. "But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here."
Mattingly chuckled as he replied to Johnson's comments on "The Lead."
"So diabolical it's impossible to prove," Mattingly said. "Which just sounds like anything my four-year-old does most days."
CNN's Jamie Gangel, a special correspondent, said Johnson's comments show he was playing to an audience of one — Donald Trump.
"He is not going to contradict Donald Trump, but the way he's saying it is really disingenuous," she said. "It's a distinction without a difference, because he is saying it stinks to high heaven. So he's not using the word rigged, but that's what he's putting out there. I think the problem here ... this is dangerous when you undermine faith in the election. Let us not forget we have seen the result of what happened on January 6th. We do not want that to happen again."
