Johnson Says California Election Fraud Is Real—There’s Just No Proof

Asked whether he thought the Los Angeles mayoral election was rigged, House Speaker Mike Johnson did what he does best: steer away from facts and embrace nebulous speculation.

“I’m not saying it’s rigged, I’m saying it stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that,” Johnson said to a gaggle of reporters Monday evening. “Let’s remove the appearance of impropriety—what a concept. Let’s have votes on an election the day of the election.”

CNN correspondent Manu Raju asked Johnson what evidence there was to support his vague complaints. Unsurprisingly, the Louisiana politician couldn’t provide a whiff of it.

“Look, some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it’s impossible to prove,” Johnson said. “But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here.”

The incumbent mayor of Los Angeles, Democrat Karen Bass, advanced to the general election with 34.3 percent of the vote on Monday. A progressive Democrat, Nithya Raman, beat Republican Spencer Pratt for second place, with 28.5 to 25.8 percent. Raman will now take on Bass in the general election, in a leftist vs. moderate clash similar to last year’s New York City mayoral race.

The battle between Raman and Pratt is what Johnson was moaning about. Pratt, a former reality TV personality, led early on Monday before Raman took the lead as more mail-in ballots were processed.

Pratt offered some typically Trumpian fearmongering by alleging that the homeless were illegally voting for Raman. The president himself also claimed, again without evidence, that the vote was “crooked.” Even longtime Republican legislators like House Majority Leader Steve Scalise are baselessly insinuating voter fraud.

It is strange that Republicans are unable to accept that they lost a mayoral race in one of the bluest cities in the country. Then again, this is the party whose leader attempted to stage a coup after losing a presidential election, who kicked off a mid-decade gerrymandering war in order to consolidate power, and whose disciples have literally tampered with voting machines in order to hijack elections. With the GOP desperate to cling to power, and lacking the morality to accept defeat, the midterms should be a ball.

President Donald Trump shut down Midtown Manhattan Monday so he could take a nap at the NBA Finals.

After getting loudly booed by attendees at Madison Square Garden, Trump was spotted snoozing in his box seats next to Knicks owner James Dolan and his granddaughter Kai Trump.

It seems that a tense Game 3 between the New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs wasn’t enough to pique the president’s interest. It’s not particularly surprising, considering that Trump has repeatedly been seen dozing off during press conferences, bill signings, and Cabinet meetings, among other apparent instances of cognitive decline.

Trump’s nap came amid his highly disruptive trip to Midtown at the taxpayer’s expense and New Yorkers’ apparent dismay.

Authorities closed 10 blocks around Madison Square Garden to traffic and pedestrians ahead of Trump’s arrival. The Secret Service and TSA, along with the NYPD, heightened security protocols at MSG. Attendees were forced to arrive hours early, and without any bags. And perhaps worst of all, the New York Knicks were forced to cancel their rambunctious watch party outside the stadium.

Clearly the vibes were off: The Knicks lost by four points, ending a 13-game winning streak.

An Indian billionaire paid millions of dollars to Donald Trump Jr. and later won major concessions from the Trump administration.

Anant Ambani, 30, is a member of the richest family in India, and his family’s energy business was in the White House’s crosshairs as part of President Trump’s tariffs against India. But when Trump Jr. visited India in November, he met with Ambani and everything changed.

Ambani wined and dined Trump Jr., taking him to the family’s private zoo and performing a Gujarati folk dance together. Only four months later, a Texas start-up aiming to build the first major oil refinery in 50 years in the U.S. announced it had received a nine-figure investment from the Ambanis’s company, Reliance Energy. The deal was facilitated by Trump Jr., who secretly bought a stake in the new venture, ProPublica reports.

Prior to Trump Jr.’s involvement, the Texas company had failed several times to raise money, missing deadlines and rebranding again and again. Its founder had been repeatedly sued for fraud and had a history of bankruptcy. But with Trump Jr.’s help, America First Refining not only secured funding from Ambani but has also met with investors from foreign countries such as Saudi Arabia.

One foreign government official told ProPublica that the company’s team said they were backed by the Trump family, and that an investment would open doors in the White House. That appears to be accurate, with President Trump gleefully posting about America First Refining’s oil refinery project in March.

Reliance Energy also paid the Trump Organization $10 million as a “development fee” in 2024, although no project has ever been announced. Ivanka Trump was a guest at Anant Ambani’s lavish wedding that year, and Anant’s father, Mukhesh Ambani (worth close to $90 billion), attended Trump’s second inauguration.

In February, the Ambanis’ efforts paid off for all of India, with the country striking a trade deal with the United States. Reliance, meanwhile, got a license to buy Venezuelan oil. After the Iran war, India got an early sanctions waiver to buy Russian crude oil.

All of this goes to show that in Trump’s second term, it’s impossible to tell when Trump’s personal business ends and U.S. policy begins. It’s increasingly apparent that cutting deals with and paying money to the Trump family means that you’ll get benefits from the federal government.

Vice President JD Vance is echoing his president’s false claims of election fraud in the Los Angeles mayoral race.

Vance went on Fox News to carry water for the baseless theory after Republican Spencer Pratt was defeated by progressive Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman, who will face incumbent Karen Bass in the general election.

“They are still counting the votes [in California]. Do you trust this election?” Fox News host Jesse Waters asked the vice president on Monday night.

“Fundamentally the problem here with this whole thing is: How is it that you had Karen Bass was in first place, Spencer Pratt was in second place, and then this other woman was in third place. You would expect these mail-in ballots to kind of meet that same basic pattern,” Vance said. “But somehow we find ourselves in a situation where number one—they’re still receiving ballots, not just counting ballots. And number two—the way they’re coming in just so happens to work out such that the Republican is getting kicked out of the final two, so it’s a Democrat-versus-Democrat runoff.

“That seems pretty shady to me, especially when you add on top of the fact that in California you are prohibited from asking for somebody’s identification before they vote,” he added.

This is the vice president of one of the most corrupt administrations in history talking about what’s “shady.” Los Angeles has over two more million more registered Democrats than Republicans. It is also common knowledge at this point that liberal and progressive voters are more likely to vote by mail than conservatives, especially since President Trump has wrongly railed against it as corrupt for years. Now, Republicans are reverting back to this tired argument because their chosen candidate lost—not because of fraud, but because voters rejected him.

Speaking to reporters after attending game three of the NBA Finals, Trump claimed that he’d received a warm reception from the crowd at Madison Square Garden.

“You mean when they had the camera on me? I thought it was very good, yeah. It was certainly amazing. It was, I think, mostly cheers. It was loud and it was very enthusiastic,” Trump said Monday night.

Here’s what really happened.

When the jumbotron at Madison Square Garden showed Trump during the National Anthem, the stadium erupted into loud deafening boos.

The second time they showed him, the boos were even worse.

And it wasn’t just Knicks fans in Madison Square Garden: At a watch party in Bryant Park, the crowd burst into jeers when the broadcast showed the president.

Still, Fox News tried to claim that the audience at MSG burst into cries of “USA! USA!” for Trump. In reality, the crowd was cheering for a group of New York City firefighters, and started to loudly boo moments later when Trump appeared on-screen.

Trump was even booed as he drove away from the stadium.

It seems that Knicks fans weren’t at all thrilled at the president’s visit, which disrupted the perfect vibes in New York City. But still Trump refused to own up to just how much everyone hates him.

Also, the Knicks lost by four points, ending a 13-game winning streak.