MAGA Mike says he and wife "took in" their son Michael when they were newlyweds. HOWEVER,

[pnwmom]

they didn't get married till 1999, according to Wikipedia, so something is off.

The interview below is from an article in 2019. In it he says that they "took custody" of Michael 22 years ago. That would mean MAGA Mike informally adopted 14 year old Michael in 1997, not 1999. MAGA Mike was still single in 1997.

https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/louisiana-congressman-mike-johnson-booed-in-juneteenth-hearing-on-slave-reparations/article_065f4cbe-92b7-11e9-976e-873c3670a8dc.html?ref=unprecedented.ghost.io

During the hearing, Johnson disclosed that he and his wife, Kelly, "took custody" of a black teenager named Michael when they were newlyweds.

"Many of my colleagues in this committee may not be aware, in addition to our four children at home, my wife and I have a much older son who happens to be African American," he said. "We took custody of Michael and made him part of our family 22 years ago when we were just newlyweds and Michael just 14 and out on the streets and on a dangerous path."

Michael is not mentioned in Johnson's official biographies that name his four younger children. Johnson's spokeswoman Ainsley Holyfield declined to elaborate on their relationship.

"The congressman will not be commenting further than what was said today in committee out of respect for Michael, his privacy and their relationship," she said.

[Demovictory9]

1. ..

[Deuxcents]

2. I'll bet this "son" is trying very hard not to be found

[debm55]

12. If he even exists.

[Wingus Dingus]

3. I just find it strange. My own sons are in their 20's and there's no way

they would ever conceive of adopting a 14 year old boy. It wouldn't occur to them, married or not, at that age. They would have no interest in suddenly housing and supporting a teenager, and paying for his schooling, etc. They can barely cover their own expenses. It's just...weird.

[sarcasmo]

15. Yep, this is a Nestor situation.

[Evergreen Emerald]

4. Isn't this similar to Matt Gaetz when he said he adopted a boy?

Rep. Matt Gaetz revealed Thursday that he has an adopted son from Cuba, a previously unknown fact the Florida Republican kept largely hidden, including from organizations compiling biographical data on him. “For all those wondering, this is my son Nestor. We share no blood but he is my life,” Gaetz tweeted.

https://rollcall.com/2020/06/18/matt-gaetz-and-the-until-now-unknown-adopted-son-from-cuba/#:~:text=at%206%3A48pm-,Rep.,my%20life%2C%E2%80%9D%20Gaetz%20tweeted.

[Demovictory9]

5. Much discussion on Reddit about the "black son". I agree that he most likely exaggerated a fleeting church relationship

https://www.reddit.com/r/politics/s/QzmSoKPa5t

[spooky3]

6. Maga Mike, adoptions are public events, even if informal, and society

has a duty to protect children from abuse by adults. So we are not buying your “privacy” excuse. I hope journalists pursue this.

[womanofthehills]

7. Here is a photo of Michael

There are two more in the video - Michael with his family - A tall black man with a white wife and 4 kids.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=mike+johnson+black+son+Michael&iax=images&ia=images&iai=https%3A%2F%2Fimg-s-msn-com.akamaized.net%2Ftenant%2Famp%2Fentityid%2FAA1iVkeT.img

You never really know. When I was young,I was a youth director at a Hispanic low income recreation center. I got really close to all the kids - many are grandparents now and are my friends on Facebook.
I was bringing a 13 yr old girl named Vicky home and her mother tells me at the door - “I don’t want her - she likes you so much she can live with you”

Vicky lived with me for a while - till her mother shows up one day and takes her back -she’s a grandmother now and she still calls me mom.

Who knows!!!

[Ms. Toad]

22. What video? n/t

[womanofthehills]

24. Here is the video

https://m.

&t=24s

Rep. Mike Johnson: Trump Insider on the Increased Racial Tensions in America | Amanpour and Company

Three pictures are shown in the beginning- a few minutes in. He loves Trump - maybe Trump was behind getting the GOP to vote for him.

[appleannie1]

8. "Took Custody" Just exactly what does that mean? Adopted? Fostered?

And after years of caring for a youth, why would you not include them as part of your family. I gained 3 girls when I married my husband because he had full custody. I never formally adopted them but always refer to them as my daughters. And what does it mean when he doesn't want to discuss "their relationship"? There again, I never considered saying I had a "relationship" with the girls. I always simply said "I have 7 children". Period. End of story. It sure makes one wonder what really went on behind those closed doors.

[pnwmom]

10. Nothing official. The claim is they didn't want to go through the "long process." nt

[appleannie1]

11. Only he is never mentioned, not even in biographies or celebrations when Johnson wins elections.

https://iitnotablealumni.com/mike-johnson-family-photos-wife-and-kids/ https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12671147/Mike-Johnson-Speaker-Republican-McCarthy-Trump.html
DEVOTED HUSBAND AND FATHER TO FOUR
Rep. Johnson married Kelly Lary Johnson in 1999.

The couple, married 24 years now, have four children together - Hannah, 23, Abigail, 21, Jack, 18, and Will, 12.

Kelly Johnson is a former school teacher who now lectures on family-related issues and is a licensed Pastoral Counselor. She studied at Louisiana Tech University and graduated in 1995.

'Kelly is also known by many for her personal testimony of deliverance through extraordinary trials, including her recovery from a broken neck in a 2007 car accident and other serious health challenges,' Onward Christian Counseling Services notes in her biography.

The organization, which Kelly founded, aims to 'provide confidential, biblically-based individual, marriage and family counseling to the people of Northwest Louisiana.'

The biography notes that Kelly is a 'leader in the pro-family movement.'

Rep. Johnson and his wife have received many honors in the family and faith space, including the 'Champions of the Faith' award at the Southern Baptist Convention.

Kelly appeared on national television with her husband in 1999 to promote Louisiana's newly passed marriage covenant laws, which made divorce more difficult in the state.

That moment helped Johnson to gain a higher profile. _______________________________ They don't include him in much.

[pnwmom]

18. And "have four children together" implies they might have had others separately. nt

[appleannie1]

33. And it is pretty hard to teach their message and have that hanging over their heads. LOL

[Girard442]

9. That book Mike says defines his life says something about that sort of thing.

Guess he forgot.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

27. The book says a bunch of stuff, and much of it horrifying.

You know, like how it's okay to sell a daughter into sex slavery.

Or force her to marry her own rapist if the scumbag will pay to take the chit off your hands. But you can sell her to her rapist only if she's a virgin living in the country and betrothed to another, otherwise, you can murder her for becoming damaged goods. Property values über alles, you know.

The book is also okay with kidnapping and raping women to force them into marriage.

It's also keen on taking little girls as war booty to do with as a captor pleases.

And, of course, who can forget the polygamy and concubines, with no regard for the wishes of the women involved?

With that much awful going on, "adopting" a son to break one of the book's rules kinda gets lost in the shuffle.

[MOMFUDSKI]

13. Keep 'splainin' mikey.

Oh, and here is a shovel. That hole isn’t deep enough yet.

[chouchou]

14. Frankly, I though it was strange..

...for Mike Johnson to even bring up the subject.

close to "Yeah, Bob..one of my best friends was a black guy"
Extremely creepy and psycho weird

[DET]

17. Everything About This Feels Wrong

Mike Johnson is not exactly the caring type - and I doubt he was any more benevolent at 25 than he is at 51. And someone so finely attuned to the alleged horrors of homosexuality must have known how weird this arrangement would look to his small community. And why call him your son when you never adopted him and don’t reference him in descriptions of your life or in pictures of your family? Inquiring minds want to know. At best, this kid was a trophy Johnson occasionally took out of his closet (so to speak) as a testament to his kind spirit and generous nature. Not a good look for the second in line to the Presidency.

[Irish_Dem]

19. So Johnson was single when he took in this child, two years before his marriage.

[pnwmom]

32. According to one version of his story the "adoption" took place in 1997,

when he happened to still be single, according to Wikipedia.

[live love laugh]

20. Something's fishy with the "relationship".

[Grokenstein]

21. I suspect that for these Republickscum adoption is the easy, legal alternative to

a slave auction.

[Ms. Toad]

23. I don't really care about what the formal arrangements were --

I have a quasi--parent/child relationship with two individuals (now adults). Both are similar age differences as between Johnson and his "son." One was legally an adult (but under 21), the other was late teens. Both were suicidal (one had attempted it; the other had made comments to a fellow teacher who pointed her in my direction); one had parents who were part of the problem, the other had one parent who was emotionally a child. That kind of informal adopt an understanding adult as a parent relationship happens quite a bit within the LGBTQ community.

What I do care about is that he is trotting out his black son to score political points, especially when his child has apparently made it clear to him he does not want to be used as a political pawn.

[pnwmom]

25. Formal/informal wouldn't matter if it weren't combined with the occasional "trotting out"

along with the question about whether he "took in" the 14 year old as a single 25 year old, or as a married 27 year old. If he was single when he informally adopted Michael, why did he say it happened when he was a newlywed?

[RockRaven]

26. Yeah, the details or specifics which matter are the f-ing LIES.

And they matter, at minimum, because they are LIES.

Once someone engages in persistent public lying about some matter, then it also raises reasonable queries/skepticism about whether other malfeasance is/was afoot.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

28. I hope Michael is ok after his encounter with Mad Mike the MAGAt Mullah.

[Think. Again.]

29. We shouldn't keep complicating...

...a very simple situation:

He's a republican, so he will be lying or manipulating truth to cover up some shady stuff he is involved with.

That is what they do, it's an integral part of being republican.

If we keep pretending that are not all inherently bad people, we will just keep allowing them to continue being bad people.

[milestogo]

30. They took him in for a threesome.

Its only extramarital sex that's bad.

Intramarital sex means you can have a third partner, apparently. Strengthens the marriage bond, or something like that.

[sheshe2]

31. No 25 year old adopts a 14 year old.

His words, he claimed an adoption and said he was married at that time. We know the second part is a lie...one can assume the first part to be as well. Frankly there is something very creepy about Mike and wife. The lies, now the scrubbing of her work site for the 'therapy' she preached as did he for his sermon/lectures.

Why have they both scrubbed their past work? What are they hiding?

[LetMyPeopleVote]

34. This story does not hold up

Link to tweet

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/10/mike-johnson-new-speaker-black-son

Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall noted on Friday that there were no photos of Michael on Johnson’s House website or his Facebook page. His son also does not appear in Johnson’s official biography.

Speculation about whether Michael was a real person prompted Johnson’s office to clarify. “When Speaker Johnson first ran for Congress in 2016, he and his wife, Kelly, spoke to their son Michael—who they took in as newlyweds when Michael was 14 years old,” said Corinne Day, Johnson’s communications director, in a statement first reported by Newsweek. “At the time of the Speaker’s election to Congress, Michael was an adult with a family of his own. He asked not to be involved in their new public life.” Day added that Johnson “maintains a close relationship with Michael to this day.”

Day told Newsweek that the Johnson family did not formally adopt Michael because of the “lengthy … process,” and declined to say whether Michael used the same surname as the family.

Johnson’s Black son came up in 2019, when Johnson testified before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee considering a resolution that would establish a commission to examine possible reparations proposals. In comments that drew boos from some in the hearing, Johnson said that he had asked his son about the idea of reparations for slavery, and that his son said he opposed it.

[Mr. Ected]

35. Normally I'd say, leave the kids out of it...

...but Hunter Biden.

This relationship should be fair game.