Speaker Johnson refuses to cave when George Stephanopoulos demands he accept narrative about Eric Trump comments

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R) refused to capitulate on Sunday when ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos pressed him about comments from Eric Trump criticizing Democrats.

According to Stephanopoulos, Eric Trump asserted over the weekend that the Democratic Party is "behind the effort to assassinate" former President Donald Trump. The lifelong Democrat then asked Johnson a loaded question.

'The lawfare is unprecedented. They have attacked him in every single way. They try to malign his character every single day.'

"So, is it right for the president and his family to suggest that Democrats are behind the effort to assassinate him?" Stephanopoulos asked.

At first, Johnson explained that he did not hear the full context of Eric Trump's comments, telling Stephanopoulos that he doesn't believe Eric was claiming the "Democratic Party tried an assassination attempt."

Rather, Johnson added, he believes Eric Trump was referring to Democrats' rhetoric about Donald Trump, which claims the former president is an existential threat to American democracy that must be stopped or America will cease to exist.

"It's absolute nonsense," Johnson said. "And they have incited dangerous people to do dangerous things — the rhetoric has. I think that is a fact that's objective that everybody can agree to. We do need to turn the volume down."

Unfortunately, that answer was not sufficient for Stephanopoulos. Instead, the anchor doubled down on his question after reading Eric Trump's remarks out of context.

Here is what Eric Trump said, according to Stephanopoulos' quote:

They tried to kill him. They tried to kill him and it's because of the Democratic Party, they can't do anything right.

But Johnson refused to cave. After noting, again, that he needs to see the full context of Eric Trump's remarks to understand correctly what Eric was saying, Johnson explained what he believes Eric meant.

"What they're referring to, though, is the absolute open attacks that have been engaged by Democrats against President Trump since the day he came down that golden escalator in 2016 [sic], OK?" Johnson said. "The lawfare is unprecedented. They have attacked him in every single way. They try to malign his character every single day. And the people have had enough of it. That's why you have these massive turnouts at the rallies. People have had enough of this."

In response, Stephanopoulos accused Johnson of "actually repeating the charge" before reading Eric Trump's remarks once more.

"What more context do you need?!" Stephanopoulos demanded. "Do you support that statement or not?"

"I'm not going to parse the language what people say at rallies," Johnson replied. "I could give you pages and pages of crazy comments by the leading Democrats in this country. That's not what this is about. We have to talk about the greatest collection of challenges that this country is facing probably since World War II, maybe the Civil War. Let's put all this political nonsense behind us and talk about how we get out of this mess."

Still unsatisfied, Stephanopoulos pressed the issue one final time, receiving the same answer from Johnson as before.

"So, it's very clear you're not going to condemn the base's suggestion the Democrats are behind the assassination attempt on Donald Trump," Stephanopoulos huffed and puffed before asking a new question.

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