How Mike Johnson is using faith to shield his racist colleague from accountability

The Republican Speaker defended Rep. Clay Higgins' despicable, racist comments by invoking his faith

This newsletter is free, but it’s only able to sustain itself due to the support I receive from a small percentage of regular readers. Would you please consider becoming one of those supporters? You can use the button below to subscribe to Substack or use my usual Patreon page!

---

On Wednesday, in response to the lies JD Vance and Donald Trump have been spreading about Haitian immigrants in Ohio and a subsequent (long-shot) legal complaint filed by a local non-profit, Republican Rep. Clay Higgins poured fuel on the fire with his own racist post on X/Twitter:

Lol. These Haitians are wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangster... but damned if they don't feel all sophisticated now, filing charges against our President and VP.

All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.

It wasn’t just spreading misinformation about Haitians. It was a literal threat against American citizens, telling them to leave the country before a possible second Trump administration gets underway.

None of this was surprising coming from Higgins, a man who once voted for KKK leader David Duke as governor of Louisiana, allegedly held a gun to his ex-wife’s head during an argument, and attacked (and then lied about attacking) a Black man while working as a cop.

It should have been easy for lawmakers across the political spectrum to condemn his thoughtless, bigoted remarks. Democrats did. Some Republicans did too.

But when Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, a fellow Louisianan, was asked about the comments, he rationalized it by bringing up religion:

“Clay Higgins is a dear friend of mine and a colleague from Louisiana and a very frank and outspoken person. He’s also a very principled man. I think - I didn’t even see it – but he tweeted something today about Haitians. And he was approached on the floor by colleagues who said that was offensive,” Johnson told reporters. “I just talked to him about it, he said he went to the back and he prayed about it and he regretted it. And he pulled the post down. That’s what you want a gentleman to do. I’m sure he probably regrets some of the language he used. But you know, we move forward. We believe in redemption around here.”

It would have been so much easier to call the remarks racist since those excuses made no sense. Why would Higgins have to pray after saying something racist? Why was it okay for Higgins to spread a racist lie at all?

To paraphrase one online commentator, there are only two jobs where you can say something that racist without getting fired: Running the KKK or being a Republican politician. And in both cases, the Christian God is always within arm’s reach.

It didn’t help that Higgins basically disavowed Johnson’s story hours later since, according to CNN Wednesday night, he doubled down on his earlier comments:

Despite the backlash and ultimate decision to take down the post after he said he prayed on it, Higgins told CNN he stood by his demeaning comments.

“It’s all true,” Higgins said. “I can put up another controversial post tomorrow if you want me to. I mean, we do have freedom of speech. I’ll say what I want.”

Digging in, Higgins continued: “It’s not a big deal to me. It’s like something stuck to the bottom of my boot. Just scrape it off and move on with my life.”

So Higgins tweeted what he believed, then said later that he definitely meant it.

Which raises a very different question: Why was Mike Johnson lying to everyone?

He said Higgins “regretted” his comments. No he didn’t.

He said Higgins “prayed about it.” Doesn’t sound like he did.

He said Higgins deserved “redemption.” Higgins then repeated his lie.

Johnson must have known Higgins meant every racist word he said when he defended his colleague, since that conversation never happened, so what does it tell us about Johnson’s Christianity that he was willing to throw God under a bus in defense of his buddy’s bigotry?

This is a man who has repeatedly cited his faith to make himself feel superior to others. He bragged about having a “covenant marriage” that’s stronger than regular marriages. God supposedly told him he was Moses. He attended a Purity Ball. He monitors his son’s porn viewing—and (ugh) vice versa. Christianity has always been Mike Johnson’s crutch to make his blandness sound like a superpower. No one has ever doubted his sincerity, but it’s telling that he’s mentioning his religion now to defend the indefensible.

The fact that Johnson can invoke faith to cover up for another Republican’s blatant racism reveals how little respect he has for his own religion. If the Christian God can be used to cover up someone else’s hate, then that God isn’t worth respecting. Mike Johnson would rather have the public associate his religion with Republican racism than citing God to oppose it.

Speaker Mike Johnson using God’s name to cover for his buddy’s racism

The irony is that there’s one openly non-religious member of Congress and several religious colleagues who don’t use their faith as a weapon on Capitol Hill, and none of them needed to speak to God before allegedly walking back their racism, because they never said anything racist in the first place.

It was a Christian who spread the racist lies, and it was another Christian who attempted to downplay the seriousness of what Higgins said.

Johnson is a horrible leader and a horrible example of what conservative Christianity has become during the Trump era. There’s no hint of compassion. God’s only purpose is to serve as a shield to protect Johnson’s colleagues when they do something despicable. The only question is what line someone would have to cross to be irredeemable. For Johnson, racist lies are always forgivable. Being a Democrat, however, is not.

---