Mike Johnson Doesn’t Want To Talk About His Black Invisible Son

The saga of the GOP’s newest star keeps getting stranger and stranger. I was just reading an article on how Mike Johnson identifies himself as an acolyte of David Barton, the faux historian and progenitor of the fable that Donald Trump is a born again Christian, when I ran across this piece of news: Johnson also claimed since he’s been in Congress to have a Black son, a lad that he adopted at the age of 14. And where is this gentleman? We don’t know.

Ralph Ellison, who was a Black author, wrote a well known book, The Invisible Man. Ellison named the book that because people refused to see the Black experience, even though it was right in front of their faces. Then there’s The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells, where a lab experiment renders the protagonist literally invisible. I’m wondering if this kid of Johnson’s is perhaps both. Here’s Josh Marshall’s take:

On Speaker Mike Johnson’s first full day in office, half the journalism world was looking into the surprise Speaker’s past. In his meteoric one day rise from four term representative to Speaker there was no time for anyone to vet him. But one part of that past came out of left field. Video surfaced of an interview Johnson did with Walter Isaacson just after the death of George Floyd in June 2020 in which he revealed that he had an adopted black son, Michael. Johnson went on to explain that there was no question that his black 14-year-old son Michael faced challenges that his white fourteen year old Will never would. Many on the leftward side of the political spectrum were struck by Johnson’s empathy and frank recognition of discrimination in contemporary America while right wingers denounced him for his wokeness.

I had only heard this story in passing until this evening when TPM Reader RS flagged something odd about the story. No African-American son shows up in any of the family photographs on Johnson’s House website or on his personal Facebook page. Nor does Michael figure anywhere in any of Johnson’s campaign biographies.

As I went further down this rabbit hole tonight I was a bit dumbfounded. Is Michael made up? Is he excluded from family pictures? I was so baffled that I went pretty far down that rabbit hole trying to figure out what was going on.

Anybody see a Black guy? Maybe “Michael” is like George and Martha’s son in Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Wolff. Remember, they had a “blue-haired, blond-eyed son” that you weren’t supposed to talk about? And nobody saw him in family portraits either?

A bit more poking around revealed that Michael also came up a year earlier in a House hearing on reparations in June 2019. Johnson opposed reparations and noted that his black son Michael did too.

In response to jeering from spectators at the hearing Johnson departed from his prepared remarks to invoke Michael. “Let me finish … Listen, wait a minute … 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. 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.”

Now, class, we’re going to review. Mike Johnson was 25 at the time he adopted a 14-year-old Black juvenile delinquent. I’m inferring the delinquent part because Johnson said that Michael was “out on the streets and on a dangerous path,” which does not sound positive. Then, Johnson later said he and his wife “took custody of Michael” around 1997. So were they foster parents, maybe? Or did they adopt this Black boy? Nobody seems to know.

And don’t bother asking Johnson’s spokespeople. Ainsley Holyfield, who was his spox in 2019, told The Advocate: “The congressman will not be commenting further than what was said today in committee out of respect for Michael, his privacy and their relationship.”

So you see, it appears that Michael “Johnson” or whatever his name is, has joined forces with Tim Scott’s girlfriend and together they’re passing time with Melania Trump. Don’t hold your breath waiting for any of them to show up, is my advice.