House Speaker Mike Johnson has developed what can only be described as a remarkable talent for strategic ignorance—claiming he hasn’t seen, heard, or read about virtually every newsworthy event that might require him to criticize the Trump administration or his own party.
WHAT’S GOING ON: As The New Republic documents, Johnson’s “I don’t know anything about that” routine has become his go-to move whenever uncomfortable questions arise. When asked about Pentagon footage of a second strike on an alleged drug trafficking vessel? “Didn’t follow a lot of the news” because he was “pretty busy yesterday.” A Presbyterian minister shot in the face by ICE agents with a pepper ball? “I haven’t seen or heard any of those videos”—despite being asked about the same incident just two weeks earlier. A ProPublica report finding 170 U.S. citizens unlawfully detained by ICE, including 20 children? “I don’t know what you’re talking about with the children.”
THE DETAILS: The pattern extends to his own party’s Nazi problem. After reports surfaced of a Hitler-loving group chat among Young Republican leadership and a swastika hanging in a Republican congressman’s office, Johnson claimed he didn’t “know who any of these people are.” When asked about Marjorie Taylor Greene’s criticism of his handling of a protective order against Rep. Cory Mills—who allegedly threatened to release explicit materials of his ex-girlfriend—Johnson insisted, “I don’t know what Marjorie’s talking about.” (He’d dismissed questions about Mills just days earlier as not “really serious.”)
BUT BUT BUT: Johnson isn’t just playing dumb about Republicans—he claimed to be hearing for the first time about a plot to assassinate House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries at a public event. “Terrible. That’s the first I’ve heard of that,” he said. Days later, Jeffries confirmed he still hadn’t heard a word from Johnson about the assassination attempt. So much for denouncing political violence.
OF COURSE: When it comes to Trump himself, Johnson maintains the same convenient ignorance. He claimed not to “know the details” of Trump’s $230 million DOJ reimbursement request, wasn’t aware of Trump’s Argentina beef deal that betrays American farmers, and “didn’t know anything about” Trump’s accidental presidential pardon of a cryptocurrency executive whose company did the Trump family a $2 billion favor.
WHY IT MATTERS: The leader of the House Republicans has essentially perfected a “See No Evil, Hear No Evil” approach to governance that provides cover for every abuse of power, every Nazi-adjacent incident, every threat to democracy. It’s not ignorance—it’s a deliberate strategy to avoid accountability while rubber-stamping authoritarianism.
BOTTOM LINE: Mike Johnson isn’t stupid. He knows exactly what’s happening. The performance of cluelessness is the point—a get-out-of-responsibility-free card for every atrocity. The question is whether his own caucus will tire of the act before the rest of us do.