House Speaker Mike Johnson was humiliated with a brutal moment live on TV as he attempted to placate President Donald Trump’s ego.
Johnson, 54, is in Dallas for Trump’s two-day Republican midterm convention, which kicked off on Wednesday. It is designed to improve the GOP’s fortunes before November’s elections and combat dire polling figures for the president.
Trump, 80, claimed on Tuesday that the event was “HOT!” and that all tickets were “totally sold out!” However, the Daily Beast reported that just before the president was due to speak on Wednesday evening, convention organizers were scrambling to fill empty seats.
Johnson was speaking on conservative cable network Newsmax on Wednesday evening shortly before Trump’s speech when he was directly asked about the number of people in attendance.
“Looks like a pretty good crowd size,” host Rob Finnerty said to Johnson, asking, “Is that arena pretty much full?”
“Yeah, it’s full,” Johnson claimed, adding, “I’m looking around, I think every seat all the way to the rafters is full.”
However, as Johnson claimed there were no empty seats, Newsmax’s cameras panned to show vacant seats in the “rafters” the Republican just said were all filled.
“This is the place to be,” Johnson said. When the camera zoomed out again, more empty seats in the upper sections were visible.
During his first-night speech, Trump made multiple references to the venue being “packed.”
“This is a big room,” Trump said during his rambling speech, which saw him recycle his usual topics, from closing borders to communism to transgender “mutilization” of children.
Looking up at one point, Trump insisted, “this place is packed,”
He then urged MAGA supporters to ignore their bladders to save him from humiliation, saying the “fake news” will spot a “man up there” leaving for the bathroom.
“They’ll take a picture of his seat while he’s gone and they’ll say ‘Trump did not fill up the arena, the arena was not filled, look at the seat’,” the senior president said.
“So please, if you don’t mind, don’t anybody go to the bathroom.”
During the Newsmax interview on Wednesday, Johnson was also asked about the fact that the GOP convention clashes with the two opening games of the new NFL season on Wednesday and Thursday.
Finnerty asked if Johnson was “concerned” about NFL fans not tuning in to watch the Republican event, and asked if it was a “scheduling mistake” by the GOP.
“I don’t think it’s a mistake,” Johnson said, claiming there was a “limited number” of days where they could stage the event before early voting begins for the midterms.
“The first night of NFL I think is a streaming service, so there’s a paywall.”
Wednesday’s NFL season opener between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots is screening nationally on free-to-air network NBC, and also streaming on Peacock.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
