The left's relentless criticism of newly-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is astounding. They've painted him as an all-powerful figure when that's far from the truth.
So far, the attacks against Johnson have been relentless. The left is outraged because he's a devout evangelical Christian who doesn't compromise his beliefs, won't bow to abortion or LGBTQ lobbies, and questions the security of the 2020 election.
Now, they've dug up something new to nitpick about: Johnson's financial situation. It turns out he's not a wealthy man, and that's apparently a problem for the left. In fact, Johnson and his family may have lived paycheck-to-paycheck before he became House Speaker.
A recent article in the Daily Beast laments the fact that Johnson has never reported a checking or savings account in his name, his wife's, or his children's in years of personal financial disclosures. His latest filing, covering 2022, shows no assets at all. However, it's unlikely that he doesn't have a bank account. Instead, he probably lives paycheck to paycheck, not meeting the threshold that would require disclosure of his accounts.
House Ethics regulations mandate the disclosure of bank accounts that meet a certain threshold, but it seems that Johnson, his wife, and their kids don't have accounts that meet those criteria. In other words, they're more in line with their constituents than most members of Congress from either party.
Typically, leftists would attack a Republican for making too much money. It's ironic to see them use the opposite approach to target their new favorite "extremist." An insightful thread by Ira Goldman on Twitter/X fact-checks and debunks the Daily Beast article.
Goldman highlights that financial disclosure rules exempt non-interest-bearing checking accounts, which the article fails to acknowledge. He also notes that Johnson and his family disclosed assets in a federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) retirement account in 2021, which isn't required to be disclosed. The Daily Beast wrongly assumes the Johnsons cashed out their TSP between 2021 and 2022.
In the end, the Daily Beast's story falls apart, and it's clear they didn't do their homework.
The bottom line: the left can't attack the new House Speaker for being wealthy, so they attempted to smear him for being middle-class. Their tactics know no bounds when it comes to discrediting a conservative.