Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) claimed Wednesday that Americans who attended recent rowdy Republican town halls were “paid protesters.”
Several GOP lawmakers have been booed or confronted at the local events this month by constituents concerned about the Trump administration’s efforts to fire thousands of federal workers.
Johnson and most have been supportive of the cuts, which are being marshalled by President Donald Trump’s billionaire lieutenant Elon Musk, but Reps. Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI), Glenn Grothman (R-WI), Rich McCormick (R-GA), and Stephanie Bice (R-OK) all received pushback from members of the public at recent town halls.
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During an appearance on CNN Wednesday, Johnson was asked if he is concerned that Democrats will be able to exploit voter dissatisfaction with the cuts to federal spending being implemented by Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) task force.
“No, I don’t, because the videos you saw of the town halls were of paid protesters in many of those places,” Johnson said, without offering any evidence to support his claim. “These are Democrats who went to the events early and filled up the seats.”
CNN host Kaitlan Collins pressed Johnson over his unsubstantiated assertion: “You can’t argue they were all paid protesters, though, Mr. Speaker. A Republican acknowledged they were his constituents.”
Johnson sarcastically replied, “That’s fantastic.” He then claimed an unspecified “they” organized Democratic supporters to “come and fill the seats early.”
“This is an old playbook that they pulled out and ran and it made it look like what is happening in Washington is unpopular,” he added, before boasting: “The American people are behind what’s happening.”
Johnson said support for DOGE is “over 80 percent right now” and said voters want the federal government to “be smaller and leaner and more accountable to the taxpayers.”
A Harvard CAPS/Harris poll published earlier this week did find that 72 percent of registered voters support the existence of an agency dedicated to government efficiency, though they didn’t specifically say they approved of the job DOGE was doing.
The majority of those surveyed—58 percent—opposed DOGE’s recent alleged efforts to access systems containing sensitive financial and personal information on Americans at multiple federal departments and agencies.
The Harvard poll found Trump’s net favorable rating was +7, despite other recent polls from CNN, Gallup, Ipsos and Quinnipiac showing the president’s approval rating was between -4 and -7.
In numerous focus groups, longtime GOP pollster Sarah Longwell found many Trump voters were having buyer’s remorse as inflation creeps up and consumer prices remain high.
“Those lawmakers do also represent Democrats,” Collins told Johnson, of the town halls he baselessly claimed were packed with paid protesters.
“That doesn’t mean they were paid to show up just because they’re upset about this.”
