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House Speaker Mike Johnson defended his labeling of "No Kings" rallies protesting President Donald Trump as "hate America" rallies, but claimed he was specifically referring to protesters and not Democrats themselves.
Johnson appeared on ABC News' This Week program and was pressed by co-anchor Jonathan Karl, who pointed out that the House Speaker "said that we should view fellow Americans, not as our enemies, but as our fellow countrymen" following the murder of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk last month.
"I've never called anybody an enemy,” Johnson said, but claimed that "there were a lot of hateful messages" during the nationwide protests on Saturday (October 18).
"I mean, we have video and photos of pretty violent rhetoric calling out the president, saying fascists must die and all the rest," he added. "So it's not about the people, it's about the message."
Karl then pressed Johnson about comparing the modern Democratic Party to the likes of anarchists, Antifa and Hamas, which he denied.
"I never said it was the whole Democratic Party, but you and I have to acknowledge the reality," Johnson said prior to shifting his criticism to New York City's Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani.
"Look at what's happening in New York. They're about to elect an open socialist Marxist as the mayor of America's largest city. There's a rise of Marxism in the Democratic Party. It's an objective fact, and no one can deny it," he added.
Mamdani, who is running as a Democratic Socialist, has publicly stated that he's not a "communist," despite being labeled as such by Trump. Johnson also argued that the 'No Kings' branding of the nationwide protests was inaccurate, claiming the government wouldn't be shutdown if Trump was actually a king.
"If President Trump was a king, the government would be open right now. If President Trump was a king, they would not have been able to engage in that free speech exercise out on the (National) Mall," he said.