Unlike his former colleagues at SDPB, Seth Tupper isn’t afraid to objectively state that Monae Johnson won’t give a straight answer on the integrity of the 2020 election:
Johnson is a Republican who will become South Dakota’s top elections official if she wins the Nov. 8 race for secretary of state. She has dodged questions about the 2020 election in recent interviews, including with Keloland Media Group and South Dakota Public Broadcasting, and she did the same with me prior to the launch of South Dakota Searchlight.
I asked Johnson, “Do you think the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent?”
“That I don’t know,” she said. “I’m thinking here in South Dakota, President Trump won the election. But President Biden, he’s the one that won the nation, so he’s our president now. And for me, I wasn’t in office at the time. I wasn’t even in the Secretary of State’s Office. I want to move forward and bring that trust forward. The way to do that is more transparency.”
I followed up with a similar question.
“Do you think the election was stolen from Donald Trump?”
She paused before answering and then said, “I’m going to leave that question up to those people that are actually in the fight for it.”
I told her she could end up “in the fight” if she wins and Trump runs for president in two years.
“Well, that would be going forward,” she said. “So I don’t want to dwell on the 2020 election. I want to move forward to this one. And I know that’s what you all want, but I’m not going to answer it.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because then you guys will just peg me as an election denier,” Johnson said. “So I want to move forward.”
I asked her to clear the air. If she’s being “pegged” as an election denier, is that a fair characterization?
“No, I don’t think that’s fair to peg me as an election denier when integrity and transparency is what everyone wants,” she said. “That’s why I’m running.”
And so it went. Getting a direct answer on the 2020 election proved impossible. All the while, Johnson seemed unaware of the contradiction inherent in her own non-answers: She was touting her devotion to transparency, even as she refused to answer questions she didn’t like [Seth Tupper, “The Trouble with Monae Johnson and Jell-O,” South Dakota Searchlight, 2022.10.28].
Unlike SDPB, Tupper pressed Johnson on her dodge, and his responsible journalistic pressing made clearer Johnson’s unwillingness to deny the Big Lie and acknowledge plain fact.
Johnson has refused to acknowledge the proven legitimacy of the 2020 election in two out of three interviews. In the two interviews where journalists pressed the question rather than quietly accepting her initial dodge, Johnson revealed her unfitness to serve as an honest election chief committed to a plain reading of the ballots.
A supporter of Johnson stopped by my house and dropped off a political flier for
Johnson.
I was polite and said Thank-You.
I fought every thought in my head to
Tell her to get that F’ing trash off of my property, but that would not have done anything constructive.
Johnson is an election denier and is as
delusional as the rest of the Trump
Tramps.
Good lord, we here do these dolts come from?
There is some consolation in the fact that Commandant Schoenbeck, Marquis de Saud Lederman and the SDGOP establishment are losing control of its caucus to the extreme white wing.
Of course, she wants it both ways, like any lying politician. Let’s analyze further.
First she says this: “I’m thinking here in South Dakota, President Trump won the election. But President Biden, he’s the one that won the nation, so he’s our president now.” That’s pretty clear. Biden won. No mention of “fraudulently won.” So, she concludes Biden won. And she is right. She has no knowledge of any fraud, so she can’t say squat about anything being fraudulent.
But she’s a weak, sniffling rat, so she can’t say anything about the insane yammerings of the Trump cult, who pushed her forward as an incompetent that can be pushed around like the cipher that she is. She’s going to be someone who is simply moved around like a pawn on a chessboard. Whatever Trump wants, Trump gets. Whatever the Trumpistas want, they get. She doesn’t stand up for the voters. She doesn’t stand up for the truth. She stands up for the cult.
Gant, when the walls fell.
Auditors, either republican or democrat, are worried as to what she will do if elected.
The worry is well-founded.
Republican Plan: elect Johnson as Secretary of State and chaos will reign. Republicans love chaos.
What a nut shop y’all got goin’ up there.
Chaos is entertaining enough as long as you can keep if from directly impacting grudznick and Mr. Blundt.
When the Republican Party is a lesson in chaos gravy taters are merch at a Trump kiosk. The SDGOP needs to step up and purge its bowels.
Grudznick..I cashed in and moved out of state. What’s your solution.
She’s obviously in a tranz state of mind.
This sort of mentality has been living with the cognitive dissonance inherent in their own world views (rote religionism vs. scientific inquiry for ex:) for so long they have not only become comfortable with it – but it is also their preferred state. So, they deliberately generate cognitive dissonant statements or ideological positions as a comforting act. It’s akin to an obsessive compulsive’s routines, or an ADD sufferer’s ticking behaviors.
America is now a tyranny of the minority. This will not end well.
As much as I loathe agreeing with Schoenbeck, his wingnut party needs to have constitutional offices mustered through a primary to filter out the worse of the wingnuts.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/10/27/america-primaries-driving-polarization-radicalization/
“In a recent piece in the New York Times, Max Fisher describes how the recent dysfunctions of British politics can be attributed to the two main parties choosing — over the past two decades — to adopt more of a primary-type system to select their leaders. The Labour Party ended up with an unelectable, far-left leader like Jeremy Corbyn and rejected a charismatic moderate like David Miliband. The recent Conservative Party travails illustrate the problem perfectly. Liz Truss, with her totally impractical, warmed-over Thatcherism, almost always came third in votes from elected members of Parliament (the old system of party “bosses”). But she was the darling of the party membership — which is highly unrepresentative of the British public — and they were the ones who made the final decision.”
“It is not an accident that Germany and France have both been run largely by solid centrists in a time of populism. They have chosen to keep to the old system of democracy based on the principle of majority rule. In the United States, and to an extent in Britain, democracy has become minority rule, and the minority holding power is unrepresentative, angry and increasingly radical.”
I agree Vi, especially after watching Johnson’s interview last night on SDPB.
I’m wondering if any Republicans who lose in S.D. will concede or refuse to believe the results, especially Noem.
V-Yup..They won’t go without plenty of drama.
John, thx for this NYT quote that:
“minority holding power is unrepresentative, angry and increasingly radical.”
Seth is great. He speaks truth to power (Republican power).
This is how talents (like Amanda Marcotte) such as Tupper’s, speak on the national stage! Well needed!!
“ The FBI and the judge who signed the warrant have been deluged with threats from Trump supporters. These people aren’t acting like maniacs because they want to make sure Trump has a box of valuable information he could sell on the black market. They are telling themselves a story about how Trump is some great MAGA hero that is being persecuted by the deep state. The QAnon folks are clinging to this bizarre hope that Trump is about to expose an international pedophilia ring and that’s why the FBI is going after him. Some of these people know that their cause is fascist. Some are just delusional. But none of them are facing up to the fact that the number one “cause” that Trump is using them to protect is his own sorry ass.”
https://www.salon.com/2022/08/12/puts-a-target-on-the-fbi-cincinnati-gunman-shows-danger-posed-by-an-endless-supply-of-dupes/