Mike Johnson Called Out For His Blatant Hypocrisy After Accusing Mamdani And AOC Of 'Laughing' At 9/11 Victims

During a press conference on Tuesday, Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson regurgitated a previously disproven claim that New York progressive Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and New York City Democratic Socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani were laughing while the names of victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks were read during the 25th anniversary commemoration in NYC.

The story first made the rounds of MAGA influencers on the day of the memorial ceremonies.

Benny Johnson (no relation to Mike)—who was among the right-wing influencers contracted by a company indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice for covertly being funded by Russian state media operatives—heavily promoted the lie to his followers on social media.

Self-described Christian nationalist Mike Johnson, who is from Louisiana, joined other members of the GOP in spreading the false story about AOC and Mamdani, both of whom were children when the attacks occurred on September 11, 2001. And unlike most of those criticizing him, Mamdani experienced the attacks up close as a 9-year-old living in Manhattan.

Days after his false narrative had been debunked by video footage and eyewitnesses, Mike Johnson still told the press and the public:

"In an unforgettable clip that we’ve all seen, I don’t think you can ever unsee it, during the sacred ceremony honoring the victims of 9/11 at Ground Zero, the unofficial leaders of the new Democratic Party, the radical left Democrat Party, AOC and Zohran Mamdani, were seen laughing while the names of the victims were being...being read, those American heroes being read aloud."

"It’s just disgusting."

You can see his press conference performance here:

Both Johnsons' lies were quickly called out online.

@Raye455/X

People also responded to Johnson’s comments with images of MAGA Vice President JD Vance laughing with former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick at the same ceremony AOC and Mamdani attended, along with video and photos of Trump appearing to fall asleep during the Pentagon 9/11 remembrance.

@JoJoFromJerz/X

Michael Ragusa, a former aide to Giuliani, directly disputed the accusations against Representative Ocasio-Cortez and Mayor Mamdani.

On the same day MAGA was first spreading the lie online, Ragusa posted on X:

"The videos of [Mayor Mamdani] and [Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez] laughing are not true. I was standing next to them the whole time. The camera just caught her greeting him hello."

"Multiple other politicians were laughing and joking behind me. Republicans and Democrats."

Ragusa added:

"And for the record I am a life long republican who has been very critical of these two. I'm just sick of this fake news and people just saying whatever they want."

But far be it for the truth to ever stop Speaker Johnson from spreading a good lie.