House Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing back on the idea that worries about election integrity are baseless, though he stopped short of openly calling the ongoing vote count in the Los Angeles mayoral race rigged. Mediaite reports that during a walk through the U.S. Capitol, Johnson spoke with CNN’s Manu Raju about the rising tension over the California results.
While the Speaker did not use the word “rigged” to describe the situation, he made clear that he finds the state’s counting process deeply suspicious. The exchange came as ballot counting in Los Angeles continued to shift the standings in the race.
When Raju asked about the evidence behind President Donald Trump’s fraud claims in the California contest, Johnson pointed to the timeline of the vote count. He said it is frustrating to watch votes being counted weeks after election day.
Johnson ties his concerns to a push for the Save America Act
Johnson noted that other countries with huge populations, such as India, manage to process their election results within 24 to 48 hours. For him, the delay is a major red flag that creates an appearance of wrongdoing. He said the goal should be to hold votes on election day, a standard he believes many other states meet, and added that California seems to be “playing around” with the process.
The conversation grew sharper when Raju pressed him on whether he agreed with the President that the process is rigged. Johnson clarified his position, saying, “I’m not saying it’s rigged. I’m saying it stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that.” He argued that some of these efforts are so far upstream that they are impossible to prove, yet he feels the public instinctively senses something is wrong.
Johnson stressed that people must believe in the integrity of the election system to maintain a constitutional republic. He said this is why he is pushing for the Save America Act, which would require proof of citizenship and a photo ID to vote.
He claimed these requirements are supported by over 90 percent of the public, including 70 percent of Democrats. The Speaker has weighed in on other national matters in recent months, including whether U.S. troops are headed to Greenland.
The scrutiny of the Los Angeles race comes as ballot counting keeps changing the order of candidates. Spencer Pratt, a registered Republican and former reality TV star, at first held second place behind Democratic mayor Karen Bass. As more ballots were counted, Democrat Nithya Raman moved ahead of him, pushing Pratt into third place.
This shift has drawn sharp criticism from the President, who used Truth Social to call the situation a “third world nation” and a “rigged election.” Trump also said the results for other races, such as the bid by Republican Steve Hilton, could take up to two weeks to finalize.
Election security experts have said this is a recurring pattern for the President. They argue that he tends to invent fraud in elections where his preferred candidates are losing or failing to win. According to The Guardian, Omar Noureldin, a senior vice-president at Common Cause, said the problem is not California’s election system, but a president who chooses to lie and sow doubt instead of facing accountability.
This view is shared by others, including Edgar Lin of Protect Democracy, who described the current situation as a well-worn playbook that the President reaches for whenever results do not go his way. California officials, meanwhile, have consistently defended their process.
They note that the state has a large electorate, with over 23 million registered voters across 58 counties. The secretary of state’s office explained that the process includes many verification steps, such as signature checks, audits, and careful counting, all of which take time to ensure accuracy. The state also gives a grace period for ballots to arrive after election day and allows voters 22 days to fix any errors on their ballots.
The secretary of state’s office said this system is designed to maximize voter access, though it leaves a gap where misinformation can spread during the waiting period. Johnson’s exchange with Raju is one of several recent moments where the Speaker has reacted to remarks from Trump, including a moment when Trump revealed a congressman’s diagnosis on live TV. Despite these explanations, the President has continued to expand his allegations.
He recently claimed the California elections were under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles, though he did not provide specific details. Federal prosecutors were sent to observe the ballot processing in the area, and Bill Essayli, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the central district of California, claimed that multiple election fraud investigations are currently underway.
Published: Jun 9, 2026 02:15 pm