By Lauren Irwin - 10/20/24

CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Sunday to explain former President Trump’s ribald rally remarks about Arnold Palmer’s genitalia.

At a Saturday campaign event in Palmer’s Pennsylvania hometown, Trump praised the golfer and said, with “all due respect to women,” Palmer was a man “that was all man.”

“When he took the showers with other pros, they came out of there. They said, ‘Oh my God. That’s unbelievable,’” Trump said. “I had to say. We have women that are highly sophisticated here, but they used to look at Arnold as a man.”

Tapper asked Johnson on Sunday’s “State of the Union” if that is the message that Trump wants to share with voters with just days remaining before Election Day.

Johnson largely avoided the question until he was pressed by the anchor on Trump’s acuity and asked why Trump was talking about Palmer’s genitalia in front of Pennsylvania voters.

“Jake, you seem to like that line a lot,” Johnson said.

Tapper interjected, saying, “I don’t want to be talking about this, right? Donald Trump is out there saying it.”

Johnson said he would “address it,” and then drew a comparison between the length of Trump’s rallies and for how long he suspected President Biden could speak at a comparable event.

“There’s lines in a rally. When President Trump is at a rally, sometimes he’ll speak for two straight hours. You’re questioning his stamina, his mental acuity, Joe Biden couldn’t do that for five minutes,” Johnson said.