U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., committed Tuesday to a peaceful postelection transfer of power, calling concerns that President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans could contest the results if Democrats win control of Congress "absurd."
"We're going to follow the Constitution," Johnson said Orangeburg, New York during a campaign stop with Republican Rep. Mike Lawler one week before the Nov. 3 midterm election. "The Constitution says when a state certifies the election of members of Congress, then they're administered the oath. That's what I'll be doing on Jan. 3 to everybody who's there," Johnson said in response to a question from MS NOW.
"I may not like some of those outcomes, but that's our system," he said. "And for anybody to suggest otherwise is absurd."
Democrats and voting rights advocates are bracing for potential challenges if control of the House flips, as is widely projected to happen, or control changes in the Senate, which is more closely contested. Republicans have a majority in both chambers of Congress.
Trump, who has continued to falsely claim that widespread fraud cost him the 2020 election, has fueled those fears by calling to "nationalize" elections earlier this year and repeatedly questioning the security of mail voting, while also suggesting noncitizens could vote in large enough numbers to skew results. His administration sued California on Oct. 15 in a fight over noncitizens voting.