Mike Johnson's Adopted Son Speaks Out

House Speaker Mike Johnson's adopted son Michael James has reportedly praised the Louisiana Republican for being "there for me when I have been lost and in the deepest valleys."

James, 40, moved in with Johnson and his wife Kelly when he was a homeless teenager. Johnson, 51, who was elected as House speaker last month following several chaotic weeks for Republicans, has said that adopting James, who is Black, helped shape his views on race in America, comparing it to the 2009 film The Blind Side, according to The New York Times.

In an interview with DailyMail.Com, which was published on Friday, James praised the Johnson family for making him feel "loved like I was a part of their family," while adding that he thanks "God all the time for giving them both the strength, patience, and unwavering faith that inspired me to do better and be better."

Shortly after Johnson's ascension to the speakership, questions were raised online about his family's relationship with James. Some even suggested that James might not be a real person, due in part to him not being featured alongside Johnson's four biological children in campaign materials.

"When Speaker Johnson first ran for Congress in 2016, he and his wife, Kelly, spoke to their son Michael—who they took in as newlyweds when Michael was 14 years old," Corinne Day, Johnson's communications director, said in a statement to Newsweek last week.

"At the time of the Speaker's election to Congress, Michael was an adult with a family of his own," she added. "He asked not to be involved in their new public life. The Speaker has respected that sentiment throughout his career and maintains a close relationship with Michael to this day."

James credited the Johnsons, who are evangelical Christians, with keeping him out of prison in his DailyMail.Com interview, saying: "If the Johnsons hadn't taken me in as a teenager, my life would look very different today. I would probably be in prison or I might not have made it at all."

The remarks were reportedly made shortly after James appeared Wednesday in a Los Angeles court, where he was facing charges of operating an illegal marijuana business and possessing brass knuckles.

The outlet also claims that James has an extensive record of previous arrests, purportedly dating back decades, including over "drug-related and other petty crimes" that led to jail time.

James reportedly faced "over 18" criminal cases from 2003 to 2010 in Florida alone, including charges of possessing cocaine, possessing a concealed weapon and possessing drug paraphernalia that included a "scale used to measure narcotics."

Johnson, only 11 years older than James, said that his adopted son was "doing great" and living in California with "four children of his own" during a 2020 interview with PBS journalist Walter Isaacson.

The then-future speaker credited his deeply religious family's "intervention" with James having "a great family life" and staying away from gangs, drugs and prison.

"He says to people—he shares his testimony—that were it not for our intervention in his life, he would certainly have joined a gang, gotten on drugs, wound up in prison or dead on the streets somewhere," Johnson told Isaacson.

Newsweek reached out for comment to Johnson's office via email on Friday.

While Republicans managed to unify in electing Johnson as speaker following an extended period of intra-party bickering, his honeymoon period was almost over before it began.

Johnson is now facing criticism from both sides of the political spectrum. Many Democrats have spoken out against the new speaker over his anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion rights views.

Some supporters of former President Donald Trump's MAGA movement, with which Johnson is also aligned, have expressed anger over his call to send aid to Israel amid the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.