These proceedings are all
closed-door. But video
has been obtained by the investigative journalism site Documented, including of Mike Johnson speaking at a CNP meeting
in New Orleans in October 2019. “Probably all of my biggest heroes are in this
room tonight,” Johnson said, before listing them. “I literally was the bag boy
for Matt
Staver when I began.” Staver is the founder of Liberty Council,
another Christian-right group devoted to “religious freedom” in the sense that
Alliance Defending Freedom is: defending the freedom to ignore LGBTQ and
women’s rights, if not eliminate them. “And Tony Perkins, I was his bag, I’m not
kidding. I was a young lawyer, and I just wanted to learn, and so I followed
those guys around.” Tony Perkins is president of the Family Research Council, where
Duggar once worked. Johnson also remarked that earlier, he was telling Morton
Blackwell, a founder of CNP, “I’m in Congress primarily because I called him
for help and he got me here.” Johnson may have laid this chapter of his origin
story out in private, but once this video leaked, it was widely reported.
Johnson also shared a telling story
about his more recent exploits. “Somehow, I found myself invited to a small
dinner that Charles Koch was having,” he began. The other guests, as Johnson
described them, were 25 of the top conservative donors in the U.S.
(They may have held as much as $4 billion in assets, according
to an estimate from the Center for Media and
Democracy.) Unlike several other members of Congress who have attended CNP
meetings, The Daily Beast reported,
Johnson failed to report the trip in his personal financial disclosures.
Johnson’s spokesperson said his campaign bought him his plane ticket. It
remains unclear who paid for Johnson’s registration fee, hotel, or meals,
though Johnson’s remarks point to at least 25 possibilities.
Were
those donors pleased when, one year later, Johnson led Republican members of Congress to help Trump overturn the 2020
election? “Johnson is more dangerous because he wrapped up his attempt to
subvert the election outcomes in lawyerly and technical language,” said law professor Rick Hasen this
fall, shortly after Johnson became House speaker. A good example would be the
language Johnson posted to Twitter on the morning of
January 6, 2021: “We MUST fight for election integrity, the Constitution, and
the preservation of our republic!” his tweet read. “It will be my honor to help
lead that fight in the Congress today.”