Asked whether he thought the Los Angeles mayoral election was rigged, House Speaker Mike Johnson did what he does best: steer away from facts and embrace nebulous speculation.“I’m not saying it’s rigged, I’m saying it stinks to high heaven, and everybody knows that,” Johnson said to a gaggle of reporters Monday evening. “Let’s remove the appearance of impropriety—what a concept. Let’s have votes on an election the day of the election.”CNN correspondent Manu Raju asked Johnson what evidence there was to support his vague complaints. Unsurprisingly, the Louisiana politician couldn’t provide a whiff of it. “Look, some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it’s impossible to prove,” Johnson said. “But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here.”RAJU: But what evidence is there to prove the California election is rigged?MIKE JOHNSON: Look, some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream it's impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively that something is wrong here. pic.twitter.com/gJIYChtG0X— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) June 8, 2026The incumbent mayor of Los Angeles, Democrat Karen Bass, advanced to the general election with 34.3 percent of the vote on Monday. A progressive Democrat, Nithya Raman, beat Republican Spencer Pratt for second place, with 28.5 to 25.8 percent. Raman will now take on Bass in the general election, in a leftist-versus-moderate clash similar to last year’s New York City mayoral race.The battle between Raman and Pratt is what Johnson was moaning about. Pratt, a former reality-TV personality, led early on Monday before Raman took the lead as more mail-in ballots were processed. Pratt offered some typically Trumpian fearmongering by alleging that the homeless were illegally voting for Raman. The president himself also claimed, again without evidence, that the vote was “crooked.” Even longtime Republican legislators like House Majority Leader Steve Scalise are baselessly insinuating voter fraud.It is strange that Republicans are unable to accept that they lost a mayoral race in one of the bluest cities in the country. Then again, this is the party whose leader attempted to stage a coup after losing a presidential election, who kicked off a mid-decade gerrymandering war in order to consolidate power, and whose disciples have literally tampered with voting machines in order to hijack elections. With the GOP desperate to cling to power, and lacking the morality to accept defeat, the midterms should be a ball.