The Left Has Found Another Reason to Hate Mike Johnson: He's Not Rich

It's mind-blowing how hard and heavy the left has gone after newly-elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). The way the mainstream media tells the tale, you would think that Johnson has more power than any speaker in history.

To recap what we've seen so far in the attacks against Johnson, the left is up in arms because the speaker is a devout evangelical Christian who dares to base his worldview on the Bible, because he won't kowtow to the abortion or LGBTQ lobbies, and because he doesn't believe that the 2020 election was as secure as the Democrats would have you believe. 

Now the left has found out something new that they don't like about Johnson: he's not wealthy. In fact, he and his family might actually have lived paycheck-to-paycheck before he took on this new gig as House Speaker.

"Newly elected Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) does not have a bank account," the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger gasps in an article from Wednesday. "At least, that’s what Johnson reports on years of personal financial disclosures, which date back to 2016 and reveal a financial life that, in the context of his role as a congressman and now speaker, appears extraordinarily precarious."

Sollenberger continues:

Over the course of seven years, Johnson has never reported a checking or savings account in his name, nor in the name of his wife or any of his children, disclosures show. In fact, he doesn’t appear to have money stashed in any investments, with his latest filing—covering 2022—showing no assets whatsoever.

Of course, it’s unlikely Johnson doesn’t actually have a bank account. What’s more likely is Johnson lives paycheck to paycheck—so much so that he doesn’t have enough money in his bank account to trigger the checking account disclosure rules for members of Congress.

Here's what the Daily Beast is talking about. House Ethics regulations require members to disclose bank accounts that meet a certain threshold:

In order to determine whether deposits in a bank account must be disclosed, you must first add together all interest-bearing checking and savings accounts held by you, your spouse, or dependent child at every financial institution in which you have such accounts. If the total value of these accounts exceeded $5,000 at the end of the reporting period, then you must disclose each financial institution that held deposits valued at more than $1,000. You must also report any interest-bearing account that generated more than $200 in interest during the reporting period, even if it was valued at less than $1,000 at the close of the reporting period or your total deposits were less than $5,000.

In other words, Johnson, his wife, and their kids must not have any bank accounts that meet that threshold — which puts them more in line with their constituents than the vast majority of members of Congress from either party.

For Our VIPs: Meet Mike Johnson: 5 Things You Need to Know About Our New House Speaker

Normally, leftists would go after a Republican for making too much money. I bet their heads are spinning at having to use the opposite tack to go after their new favorite "extremist." Over at Twitter/X, Ira Goldman fact-checked (and reality-checked) the Daily Beast article in a fascinating thread.

HOT TAKE: This Daily Beast piece is so flawed, it should be taken down.

For starters: While it says "OMG!" Speaker Mike Johnson's *financial disclosure* doesn't show he has a bank account, the rules don't require every acc't (even >$1000) be reported.
🧵https://t.co/W3nHh8FVOJ pic.twitter.com/6d5TGSJ8kF

— Ira Goldman 🦆🦆🦆 (@KDbyProxy) November 1, 2023

"Specifically, the financial disclosure rules exempt *non-interest-bearing* checking accounts," Goldman elaborates. "The piece actually includes the "interest-bearing" detail, yet then misses the possibility he and his wife have one or more NON-interest-bearing checking accounts."

Goldman goes on to point out that Johnson and his family disclosed assets in a federal Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) retirement account in 2021 but not in 2022. TSP accounts don't require disclosure, but the Daily Beast jumps to the conclusion that the Johnsons cashed out their TSP sometime between 2021 and 2022. 

"So then why was Mike Johnson's Thrift Savings Plan acc't listed on his financial disclosure in 2021?" Goldman asks. "I don't know, but it is an asset and maybe whoever prepared his report for 2021 simply didn't know TSP is exempt from disclosure… then that was fixed in 2022."

Goldman wonders how the Daily Beast got its story so wrong. He guesses that "the reporter relied on his named 'ethics' sources but didn't check with someone who's an expert at filing financial disclosure reports."

In the end, the Daily Beast ends up looking silly:

And the clincher is: The Daily Beast uses its evidence-bereft piece as a setup for these last 2 scoffing graffs (paraphrased):
1) "How can anyone call Mike Johnson a 'conservative' when [DB baselessly claims] his finances suck."
2) "He's not saving b/c he plans to cash out!"

🧵 pic.twitter.com/rMoEtD0uvc

— Ira Goldman 🦆🦆🦆 (@KDbyProxy) November 1, 2023

The bottom line of the whole debacle is this: the new House Speaker isn't wealthy enough for the left to attack him for being rich, so one outlet tried to go after him for being middle-class. What won't the left do to smear a conservative?