As Mike Johnson cuts off aid to Ukraine, we need to see why he’s obeying Trump. People with secrets comply - and Johnson is almost certainly a child abuser. From 2019-2023 he told 3 different stories about his “adopted son”, all lies. This 🧵 reviews them - and Matt Gaetz. 1/
Shifting, contradictory stories are a red flag. Johnson's three versions of all contort truth to deny he “took in” an unrelated boy as a single man - they all insert wife Kelly in impossible ways. It looks very bad. (Sources in report.) 2/
docs.google.com/document/d/1Us…
STORY 1: Johnson first announced his “son” Michael James in June 2019 in a House hearing on reparations for slavery. He said he and Kelly met a 14-year-old boy as newlyweds “22 years ago”, i.e. 1997. No one flagged the problem: Mike and Kelly met only in 1998, married in 1999. 3/
STORY 2: When Johnson talked about his ‘son’ again a year later, to Water Isaacson, he fixed the Kelly problem by making the boy 3 years younger. Now he and Kelly took in the 14-year-old “20 years ago”, i.e. 1999, the year they married. Isaacson didn’t notice the switch. 4/
Isaacson should have worried when a leader in the Southern Baptist Convention, a hotbed of abuse, spoke for a missing child, but worry isn't his style. Sam Kriss calls him a “born sycophant" built to "spread as much propagandistic bullshit as possible.” 5/
thepointmag.com/criticism/very…
For 3 years, Johnson repeated Story 2 like a script. 2020: “have you seen the movie The Blind Side - that was our story except MY Michael was not an NFL prospect” 2022: “You’ve seen the movie The Blind Side, that is our story except my kid was not an NFL prospect” 6/
STORY 3: In 2023, the Daily Mail found Michael James and learned he was older. Johnson then scrambled to cover. He added the 3 years back, now saying he met James in 1996 (when the boy would be 13) but “took him in” only 3 years later, at age 16, after he married Kelly. 7/
Johnson’s not forgetful: he told the same story for 3 years. He or his spokeswoman said six times that James was “taken in” at 14. His story changed only when it had to. There's more (see 🧵) but the lies make it clear: Johnson's hiding something bad. 8/
No one knows Michael James’ story. The Daily Mail got a statement that feels scripted: “I always felt loved like I was a part of their family”, but James wasn’t at Mike and Kelly’s wedding. Note that Johnson's SBC routinely made abuse victims sign NDAs: payment for silence. 9/
MATT GAETZ. It’s creepy that Mike Johnson used a House hearing to announce he’d informally “adopted” a young, minority boy. It’s creepier that TWO high-profile House Reps did the same. A year after Johnson, Gaetz used the same playbook to announce his own ‘son’. 10/
Like Johnson, Gaetz used a House hearing touching on race. But Gaetz isn't smooth; he managed only “are you suggesting..none of us have non-white children? Because you reflected on your black son and said none of us could understand..” At the end, Mike Johnson stepped in. 11/
To get the details out, Gaetz had to Tweet them - “This is my son Nestor” - and give an interview to People. He said he took the boy in at age 12, six years ago. People: “..the strangest thing about this story is that this is the first time any of it has been shared publicly” 12/
By Fall that year, Gaetz was under investigation for sex trafficking (of girls). He fixed up his personal life in a rush: proposed in December, then eloped in August. The month before the wedding, his future sister-in-law called him a “literal pedophile”. 13/
THE BIG PICTURE: two Congressmen in the top 10 insurrection scores had fake-adopted unrelated boys. The Speakership was seized by these two, with Jim Jordan who'd covered up abuse of young men at Ohio State. That's wildly improbable by chance. The secrets look like a feature. 14/
Obedient people are an asset. Rep. Robert Garcia calls it: “The Republican Party is in complete chaos because Donald Trump commands every single thing they do and tells Mike Johnson what to do every time”. Johnson delivers what Trump wants. 15/
Secrets are a useful tool in politics. Today’s GOP collects them and uses them. Kari Lake wears a wire, then ousts a rival. Matt Gaetz outs a fellow Rep, saying he “has to live a lie”. Madison Cawthorn is booted with scandalous footage (simulating gay sex, wearing lingerie). 16/
Johnson was promoted by powerful people. In 2010 he was picked out by Evangelical leaders and installed at the Paul Pressler law school (a * for later). In Feb 2020 he was picked out by Trump, brought into his inner circle. He was the standby for Speaker if Jim Jordan failed. 17/
Exposing secrets is the only way to negate their power. We need, desperately, investigative journalism. Johnson went on NBC’s Meet the Press: no questions about his ‘son’. It’s not just for Ukraine - Johnson's 2nd in line for the presidency. And he’s taking orders. 18/
Someone has to uncover the past that’s driving the present. Someone has to interview Michael James - in person, not by email. And his real family. And Johnson’s friends from LSU. And those who investigated abuse in the SBC. Who will do this? WaPo didn’t. 19/
We don’t have much time, as Ukraine’s ammunition dwindles. U.S. media is gutted by layoffs. Will donors step up, or #NAFO...or Ukraine? @andriyYermak: we sent tanks, now give us reporters: send someone, hire someone here, do something. Both our democracies are on the line. 20/
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