Speaker Johnson Clarifies His ‘Little Secret’ With Trump: ‘Nothing Scandalous’

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) walks to a meeting at the Capitol in Washington on Sept. 11, 2024. Jose Luis Magana/AP

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has clarified that his “little secret” with former President Donald Trump is related to mobilizing voters to vote for Republican candidates and there is “nothing scandalous” about it.

The buzz began when Trump, during his rally at Madison Square Garden, said that he and Johnson shared a “little secret” he'd reveal only after the election. Trump, now a three-time Republican presidential candidate, teased that this “secret” could have a “big impact” on whether Republicans can maintain a majority in the House.

The comment fueled suspicion among Democrats, with some alleging it had to do with a plot to have Johnson challenge the election results if Trump loses next week.

Johnson laughed off the speculation as media-driven paranoia.

“It’s nothing scandalous, but we’re having a ball with this,” Johnson told the crowd at an Oct. 28 rally in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where he was campaigning for state Rep. Ryan Mackenzie’s congressional bid. “The media—their heads are exploding: ‘What is the secret?’”

In a video shared by The Hill, Johnson drew laughter from the crowd as he dramatically rubbed his hands together, acting as if he had an evil plan. “It’s a get-out-the-vote. It’s one of our tactics on get-out-the-vote,” he said. “But they are convinced.”

“He really does call it our secret,” Johnson continued, referring to Trump. “It’s not diabolical. It’s actually very good. It’s going to help us with the turnout.”

In response to a request for comment, a spokesperson for Johnson confirmed that the “secret” actually centers on the Republican Party’s get-out-the-vote strategy.

“We will stick with the speaker’s comments in Pennsylvania for now,” the representative told The Epoch Times.

The Trump campaign didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Some Democrats have drawn their conclusions on what Trump and Johnson are supposedly planning.

In an interview with CNN, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) said he believes the reason Trump staged a rally in a state he is unlikely to win was to energize down-ballot Republicans to preserve a Republican majority in Congress at a time when it will have the role of certifying the electoral votes.

“On January 6, the certification of the electoral college will happen again, and as we know from 2021, whoever is in control of the House of Congress will have a lot of say on what happens on January 6,” Goldman said. “I suspect Donald Trump’s little secret plan with Mike Johnson is a backup plan for when he loses and he tries to go to the House of Representatives to throw out the electoral college.”

Nonetheless, it is Vice President Kamala Harris—in her capacity as president of the Senate—who will be presiding over the Jan. 6, 2025, joint session of Congress to certify the election results. Johnson, or whoever will hold the speaker’s gavel that day, has no special role in the proceedings.

Should Republicans hold the House and Johnson retain the speakership, he could demand that Republicans in Congress vote as a bloc against certifying the electoral votes, but the bar for such a challenge has been raised since the last presidential election.

Under a law passed in 2022 as part of that year’s budget package, any objection to state electors now requires the backing of at least one-fifth of both the House and Senate. Even then, a majority vote in both chambers is needed to uphold that challenge.

The 2022 law, spearheaded by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), also limits the grounds on which objections can be made. The first permissible objection applies only to the wrongful appointment of electors. The second applies only to the electoral votes that are “not regularly given,” such as an elector voting for an ineligible candidate or voting on the wrong day.