### House Speaker Deflects on Acknowledging 2020 Election Results

In a contentious interview on ABC News's "This Week," House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) declined to explicitly state that Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election, dismissing the question as a "gotcha game" by mainstream media. Host George Stephanopoulos pressed Johnson to confirm unequivocally whether Biden won and Trump lost in 2020. Johnson avoided a direct answer, criticizing the media for playing what he called a "gotcha game" with mainstream Republicans.

Stephanopoulos referenced a similar moment from a recent debate where GOP vice-presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (Ohio) also avoided answering whether Biden won the election, highlighting the ongoing reluctance among some Republicans to address Trump's election fraud claims. Johnson accused Stephanopoulos of attempting to rehash disputes from four years ago instead of focusing on future issues.

The exchange took place against a backdrop of persistent claims from former President Donald Trump that the 2020 election was rigged. Stephanopoulos pointed out that Trump continues to claim on the campaign trail that he won the election and Biden lost. Johnson responded, saying, "I'm not going to play the game," and refused to engage further on the topic.

Johnson had previously led a congressional effort to challenge the 2020 presidential results in four key battleground states. He gathered 125 House Republicans to support a Supreme Court brief claiming that state election officials had improperly altered voting procedures due to the pandemic without legislative approval. This effort ultimately failed. Johnson also voted against certifying the electoral college results for Biden on January 6, 2021. As a constitutional lawyer and staunch Trump ally, Johnson has been a regular visitor to Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate and a consistent defender of the former president in Congress.

With the upcoming Election Day on November 5, Johnson's comments have sparked speculation regarding how he might act if Trump does not win the electoral college. Although the House speaker holds no power over the election certification process, and Congress has implemented safeguards clarifying the vice president's largely ceremonial role, Johnson and other House Republicans could still potentially attempt to challenge the certification through lawsuits, as they did in 2020.

In recent days, various Republicans, including Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), have similarly avoided directly acknowledging that Trump lost the 2020 election. When asked on NBC News's "Meet the Press" to definitively state that Trump lost, Cotton asserted that "Joe Biden was elected president in 2020," but claimed the election was unfair without providing evidence. Despite further probing by host Kristen Welker, Cotton repeated that Biden was elected.

Johnson's reluctance to address the 2020 election results highlights a broader trend among Republicans, who frequently steer the conversation towards the future while avoiding direct confrontations with Trump's continuing claims of election fraud.