‘No Kings’ protests: Mike Johnson slams rallies as gathering of ‘anarchists’; calls it ‘Hate America Rally’

US house speaker Mike Johnson on Friday sharply criticised the “No Kings” rallies planned nationwide on Saturday, calling them politically motivated gatherings of far-left groups that he described as anti-America.His remarks came on the 17th day of the ongoing federal government shutdown.“Tomorrow, the Democrat leaders are going to join for a big party out on the National Mall. They’re going to descend on our Capitol for their much-anticipated so-called ‘No Kings Rally.’ We refer to it by its more accurate description — the Hate America Rally,” Johnson told reporters at the Capitol. “If you think about what's going to happen here tomorrow, you're going to bring together the Marxists, the Socialists, the Antifa advocates, the anarchists, and the pro-Hamas wing of the far-left Democrat Party.

That is the modern Democratic Party. That's where they've gone” he said, adding that these groups “hate capitalism,” “hate our free enterprise system,” and “fight against the rule of law.”

“And the Hate America Rally is the common theme among all those groups. Listen to the language they use themselves. Many of them don't like living in America. They hate capitalism. They hate our free enterprise system. They hate our principles.

They hate the ideas that we come in to work every day to fight for, to preserve, and the greatest nation in the history of the world. They hate the idea of individual freedom and limited government.

They hate the idea of the rule of law. They fight against it all the time”, he further said.Johnson’s remarks echoed his earlier comments on Fox News, where he said that some House Democrats were even “selling t-shirts for the event” and accused them of being unable to “reopen the government until after that rally because they can’t face their rabid base,” reported Politico.Democratic leaders, including Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, have defended the rallies, urging Americans to “peacefully” exercise their constitutional right to protest and oppose what he called the Trump administration’s “threats to democratic norms.”Organisers of the No Kings movement, a coalition of labour unions and groups such as Indivisible and Vote Save America, had dismissed Johnson’s comments as politically driven. “Speaker Johnson is running out of excuses for keeping the government shut down,” they said in a joint statement, noting that the movement aims to affirm that “America belongs to its people, not to kings,” according to Politico.As per news agency AFP, the “No Kings” rallies, held on Saturday, drew millions across all 50 US states, with protesters denouncing US President Donald Trump’s policies and what they called his “authoritarian” tendencies. While largely peaceful, isolated clashes were reported in Los Angeles, where police used non-lethal rounds and tear gas to disperse late-night crowds.