Fuck him.... And using "him" is being kind...

Johnson won’t criticize Trump’s rhetoric on Democrats: "There's a lot of heated rhetoric all around"

From CNN's Ellis Kim and Manu Raju

House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to criticize President Donald Trump’s charged rhetoric about Democrats when pressed Tuesday by CNN at a press conference.

Johnson had earlier in his remarks spoken out against lawmakers who failed to disagree with opponents respectfully and instead engaged in unhelpful rhetoric. He called on political leaders to, in the wake of the assassination of Charlie Kirk, turn down the temperature.

“Leaders cannot call their political opponents Nazis and fascists and enemies of the state because they disagree with their policy priorities. This is something we should have learned in grade school,” the speaker said.

But when asked by CNN whether he would urge Trump — who has at times labeled Democrats as “evil” and the “enemy”— to tamp down his own rhetoric, Johnson responded by saying Trump has “been called the most despicable names by people on the left for a long, long time.”

“Look, there’s a lot of heated rhetoric all around and what I’m trying to advance here is this idea that we can have vigorous policy debates,” he said.

He pointed to Kirk as an example. “We can have vehement disagreements on policy, but it shouldn’t be personal. At the end of the day, we’re trying to bring people to our mode of thinking, and it’s more effective that way when you handle it that way. And I think Charlie was a great example of that,” Johnson said.