Did a reporter ask House Speaker Mike Johnson during a February 5, 2025, news conference if the politician thought "unelected government officials are dangerous, but unelected billionaires making policy decisions is fine"? No, that's not true: A social media post representing this exchange is fabricated. There is no record of this question-and-answer in a broadcast of the press conference or within its transcript.
The fabricated transcript appeared in a comment on X (archived here) published on February 5, 2025. It was captioned:
Rest of conversation -
REPORTER: "So just to be clear--unelected government officials are dangerous, but unelected billionaires making policy decisions is fine?"
MIKE JOHNSON: "That's not what I said."
REPORTER: "Right, but it's what's happening. You're handing major government functions to a private citizen with no oversight. If he was in the EPA, you'd be calling him a 'deep state bureaucrat.'"
MIKE JOHNSON: "I think you're misunderstanding the situation."
REPORTER: "No, I think I'm just describing it out loud."
This is how the post looked on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Feb 10 16:13:09 2025 UTC)
The exchange shown in the post at the center of this fact check is entirely fabricated.
This post was a reply to a February 5, 2025 post (archived here) on X shared by Aaron Rupar. Rupar's post included a 1:29-minute video clip from a Newsmax livestream broadcast featuring a press briefing that same day.
In his post, Rupar paraphrased the exchange between Chris Pergram, a Fox News senior congressional correspondent, and Johnson.
Rupar wrote:
REPORTER: Is there an inconsistency with Republicans railing against 'unelected bureaucrats' in charge and yet ceding Article 1 powers to the executive branch under Elon Musk?
MIKE JOHNSON: No, look ... I think there's a gross overreaction in the media to what's happening
(Source: X screenshot taken on Mon Feb 10 18:21:34 2025 UTC)
The video posted byC-Span has the entirety of the briefing, titled "House Republican Leadership Press Conference," on February 5, 2025 (archived here). The moment in question can be seen at the 26:24 minute mark when Johnson invites Pergram to ask the last question, calling on him by his first name. Both the question and the reply were more extensive than Rupar's paraphrasing. This exchange follows:
Johnson: Chad last one.
Pergram: Is there an inconsistency by Republicans on one hand, where we've heard for years now, "Oh we want to not have unelected bureaucrats in charge of things downtown," and yet ceding article one powers to the executive branch under Elon Musk? Is there not an inconsistency about calling for the elimination of the Department of Education and yet we've heard from some colleagues here this morning, you know, "We don't want," you know, "women to be playing sports with men." and aren't you seeding back that power then as it pertains to education if you eliminate the Department of Education?
Johnson: No. Look, I've got to challenge the premise of the question Chad. You know me, I'm a fierce advocate and defender of article one. I mean that, look, we are the legislative branch. There's a reason the founding fathers put the Congress, the legislative branch as the first article in the Constitution and we're going to vigorously defend that. But what's happening right now, I think there's a gross overreaction in the media to what is happening.
Below is a video of the February 5, 2025, briefing:
Johnson's answer is several minutes long, from the 26:56 to the 29:32 minute mark, at which point he and the other Republican representatives exited.
Pergman did not ask a follow-up question beginning with, "So, just to be clear..." as was suggested in the X comment.
A search of the C-Span transcript from the entire February 5, 2025, news conference did not match the phrases in the post at the center of this debunk.
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