WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (NewsNation) — House Speaker Mike Johnson and former President Donald Trump met Friday for a joint appearance that could potentially shape the direction of the speaker’s leadership amid a threat of being ousted.
Johnson and Trump hosted the conference at the former president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, where the speaker put forth an argument that border security has become an issue of election integrity. Johnson advocated for a new bill that he said would establish safeguards to stop non-citizens from voting in federal U.S. elections and suggested that Democrats are intentionally making it easier for people to enter the U.S. so they can vote and potentially influence election outcomes.
“Why would they do this?” Johnson said. “Why would they allow this chaos? Why the violence? Because they want to turn these people into voters.”
A Washington Post fact-check that analyzed data from both conservative and liberal-leaning organizations found few documented cases of non-citizens voting in federal elections. In some instances, people who were not eligible may have thought they were while getting a driver’s license.
In 2022, Georgia completed a citizenship review of the state’s voter rolls and found that 1,6234 people older than 25 attempted to register to vote despite not being U.S. citizens. None were permitted to register and therefore were unable to vote.
A U.S. district judge previously called Texas’ efforts to identify non-citizen voters “a solution looking for a problem,” after learning that Texas flagged 100,000 voters as potential non-citizens. Of those, about 25,000 were “erroneously flagged because of data mix-ups,” the Washington Post reported. Fourteen voters were removed from the roll and had to be reinstated as a result of the review.
Friday’s event comes as Trump has spent the past few days hosting multiple fundraising events in Florida and Georgia. The press has not been allowed in; however, Bill White, a supporter of the 45th president who has attended the fundraising events said Trump has been focused on critical issues, particularly the border and immigration.
This sentiment resonates with polling data, which indicates that immigration is quickly becoming the top priority in the 2024 presidential election. According to Gallup polling from February, 28% of American voters rank immigration as their most important issue overall, with government and poor leadership coming in second and the economy ranking third.
The event also comes as Johnson seeks to solidify Republican support for various initiatives ranging from the nation’s security surveillance system to securing military aid packages for Ukraine and Israel. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., continues to voice threats to remove Johnson from his position as speaker.
The outcome of Friday afternoon’s announcement could potentially shape future developments. Following that, Trump is set to resume his campaign activities Saturday in Pennsylvania.
Then, attention will shift to his upcoming legal proceedings, with jury selection scheduled for next week in his New York hush money case.
NewsNation Digital reporter Katie Smith contributed to this report.