CNN host Jake Tapper called out House Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-LA) Christian faith after the influential Republican lawmaker tried to scuttle a sexual misconduct investigation into attorney general nominee Matt Gaetz.
During a Sunday interview on CNN, Tapper noted that Gaetz had faced a House Ethics Committee investigation “over numerous allegations, including one that he had sex with a 17-year-old.”
For his part, Johnson insisted that he could not be involved in releasing the report on Gaetz after saying it should never see the light of day.
“The [president-elect] and I have literally not discussed one word about the ethics report, not once,” Johnson told Tapper. “The Speaker of the House is not involved in ethics committee work, can’t be, shouldn’t be, because the Speaker can’t put a thumb on the scale or have anything to do with that.”
“What I have said with regard to the report is that it should not come out,” he added, noting that Gaetz had resigned from Congress.
“The House Ethics Committee in the past has released reports of individuals who resigned from Congress,” Tapper pointed out.
The CNN host noted that Gaetz has also been accused of bragging on the House floor about sex parties and drug use.
“So just to take a step back, because you and I have known each other for a long time, you’re a man of faith, you’re a man of God, you’re a man of family,” Tapper told Johnson. “With some of these nominees, Gaetz, Hegseth, RFK Jr., I wonder, does it matter anymore for Republicans to think of leaders as people who are moral in their personal lives? “Is that still important to the Republican Party?”
“Sure,” Johnson replied. “It’s an important issue for anyone in leadership. This is what I’ll say about the nominees that the president has put forward, is that they are persons who will shake up the status quo.”
