Johnson calls description of him as an election denier ‘nonsense,’ but won't say Biden won

House Speaker Mike Johnson called suggestions that he is an election denier “nonsense,” but refused to affirm that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election during an interview that aired Sunday.

The Constitution was “clearly violated during the 2020 election,” the Louisiana Republican told CBS’ Margaret Brennan during an interview on “Face The Nation.”

In the aftermath of former President Donald Trump’s loss in 2020, Johnson helped bolster a last-ditch lawsuit filed by Texas attempting to invalidate the results in Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, urging his congressional colleagues to sign onto an amicus brief in support of the suit.

“President Biden was certified as the winner of the election, he took the oath of office, he's been the president for three years,” Johnson told Brennan. But he maintained that the election violated the law.

“The Constitution was violated in the run up to the 2020 election, not always in bad faith, but in the aftermath of Covid, many states changed their election laws in ways that violated that plain language. That's just a fact,” Johnson said.

While dozens of lawsuits challenged Biden’s victory in the wake of the 2020 election, none successfully disproved that he defeated Trump.

In her book “Oath and Honor,” former Rep. Liz Cheney sharply criticized Johnson for spearheading what she considered to be a constitutionally dubious effort for House Republicans to support a challenge in the Supreme Court to the results of the 2020 election.

“As I read the amicus brief — which was poorly written — it became clear that Mike was being less than honest with our colleagues,” she wrote. “He was playing bait and switch, assuring members that the brief made no claims about specific allegations of fraud when, in fact, it was full of such claims.”

Johnson said during Sunday’s interview that he was surprised by Cheney’s criticisms, and claimed she at one point considered signing onto the brief.

“Well I’m surprised that she's given that criticism because during that process, Liz and I were in constant dialogue about that. And, at one point, she even considered signing on to that bill. I'll tell you that that is a fact, to that amicus brief,” Johnson said. (Cheney's memoir strongly suggests otherwise.)

“But I'm telling you that the plain language of the Constitution has never changed. And what happened in many states by changing the election laws without ratification by the state legislatures is a violation of the Constitution. ... That's a plain fact that no one can dispute,” he maintained.

David Cohen contributed to this report.