Mike Johnson breaks down when asked to say Biden won and Trump lost

Speaker Mike Johnson was pressed to say that Biden won and Trump lost, and the idea of stating this simple fact made him break down.

Video:

Transcript via ABC's This Week.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, you have the opportunity to condemn it if you want. You have that opportunity, but we can move on now.

I want to ask you a question that Senator Vance did not answer in this week's debate. Can you definitely say Joe Biden? won the 2020 election and Donald Trump lost.

JOHNSON: See, this is the game the mainstream media always plays with leading Republicans. It's a hip game. You want us to judge things that happened four years ago when we talk about the future. We are not going to talk about what happened in 2020. We're going to talk about 2024 and how we're going to solve the problems of Americans.

I think this game that keeps playing, I'm not going to deal with it. We don't talk about that.

Joe Biden has been president for almost four years. Everyone needs to get over this and move on. This is what needs to be talked about, what is happening on November 5 and in the following days.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So how…

(SQUARE)

JOHNSON: I think that's really important, and that's what the American people are asking us to talk about.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So, like Senator Vance, you can't say for sure that Joe Biden won the 2020 election and Donald Trump lost.

JOHNSON: George, I'm the Speaker of the House. I work with the President of the United States all the time. Joe Biden has been president for four years. No question about it, okay?

It's already done and decided and it's a gotcha game that's been played and I'm not playing it. I want to talk about the future. Let's talk about politics.

Ask me anything you want, any tough questions. Let's get it out there for the American people. That's what they need to hear.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, it's President Trump who says every day, former President Trump, at almost every rally, that the election was rigged, that he won, and that Joe Biden lost. I'm just saying whether you accept it or not.

JOHNSON: George, I'm not going to play the game. Ask me any question about any issue facing the country. They are some of the biggest problems we have faced.

The fact that Republicans believe that accepting the fact that Biden won and Trump lost is somewhat of a sham speaks volumes for the post-Election Day agenda. Johnson's refusal to agree on electoral reality shows that the Trump Party is already in full election denial mode.

Republicans could make sure they never get asked who won the 2020 election by answering the question honestly. Facts are not traps.

A trap is being set, but Trump and his party are setting it. It is political gasification when the Republican Party is already trying to create a justification to invalidate their possible loss in order to steal the election.

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Jason is the managing editor. She is also the White House Press Center and Congressional Correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a BA in Political Science. Her graduate work focused on public policy, specializing in social reform movements.

Awards and professional memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and the American Political Science Association