Mike Johnson Rallied Support for Voting Bill With Fringe Right Wing Trolls — Before Sharing With Trump

AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) announced his new “election integrity” bill on Friday alongside former President Donald Trump. But before that, he let a few right-wing influencers in on the text of the bill, including one who was arrested on January 6.

In a report by NBC News’ Ryan Reilly, the bill — which addresses voting by noncitizens, which is already illegal — was branded as the “SAVE Act” by a handful of right-wing social media accounts such as Libs of TikTik, DC Draino, and EndWokeness. But their posts urging their followers to pass the bill were posted before Johnson’s press conference with Trump at Mar-a-Lago:

Johnson’s news conference was scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. ET Friday, but it began just after 5 p.m. Neither Johnson nor his office would provide specifics about the legislation before Friday’s event when they were asked by NBC News. His office confirmed Monday that background information about the bill had been sent in advance to conservative-leaning influencers. In the hours leading up to Johnson and Trump’s news conference, social media posters, including Libs of TikTok, DC_Draino and EndWokeness, promoted the legislation online. They all called the bill “the SAVE Act,” though Johnson did not name it as such.

“PASS THE BILL,” DC_Draino wrote at 4:22 p.m., claiming the bill “would require blue states to obtain proof of citizenship for voter registration.”

On X, EndWokeness wrote that the bill would add penalties for election officials’ registering noncitizens to vote.

Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, reposted EndWokeness’ post at 4:40 p.m., saying he had authored the bill. A spokesman for Roy said the bill has not yet been filed yet, but Roy posted a screenshot of the first few lines of legislation before Johnson’s speech.

Several other conservative influencers posted about the bill, including Isabella DeLuca, who posted about it on her account just as the press conference was starting at 5:07 PM ET. DeLuca was arrested in March for her activities on January 6, 2021 and was charged with theft of government property. She wrote on Twitter: “America’s democracy hinges on the integrity of our elections.”

The bill is widely expected to be dead on arrival in the Democratic-controlled Senate.