U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., committed to a peaceful post-election 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. 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 Tuesday during a campaign stop with New York Republican Rep. Mike Lawler, one week before the Nov. 3 midterm election, in response to a question from MS NOW. "I may not like some of those outcomes, but that's our system. 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 earlier this month in a fight over noncitizens voting.
The Department of Justice also sued Alaska last week to block the certification of its results in the event of voter confusion. GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan will appear on the ballot beside Daniel J. Sullivan, a retired teacher whom Republicans have said is on the ballot only as a spoiler candidate.
Johnson, who in the wake of the 2020 election was a key congressional ally of Trump's in his quest to overturn results, on Tuesday said questions about a peaceful transfer were "a little silly."
"Of course we'll have a peaceful transfer of power. But it will not be transferring, because we are going to keep the majority and I'm going to be the speaker of the House and I will keep steady hands at the wheel," Johnson told reporters.