If you are raising kids and hope to teach them that it is important to respect and obey the law, your job got harder last week. On Tuesday, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson disclosed that the Republican caucus will not release the raw footage of the Jan. 6 insurrection until the faces of the rioters have been blurred.

Johnson — who would act as president if the sitting president and vice president were no longer able to serve — said, “We have to blur some faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ.”

Here’s another way to say that: We have to hide the faces of the criminals who were recorded breaking the law that day because someone might recognize them and turn them into the police. God forbid they might be held accountable for their crimes.

It is a strange position for a guy who once told the Louisiana Baptist Message newspaper, “I am a Christian, a husband, a father, a lifelong conservative, constitutional law attorney and a small business owner in that order.” There’s nothing on that list about being an accomplice or an accessory or a terrible citizen.

Johnson’s staff rushed to clean up the mess he made by accidentally telling the truth — the definition of a political gaffe. They lied and said that the blurring was necessary “to prevent all forms of retaliation against private citizens from any non-governmental actors.” But Johnson had said “the DOJ.”

And Johnson’s spokesman Raj Shah didn’t help his boss when he tried to play this off as no big deal, saying, “The Department of Justice already has access to raw footage from Jan. 6, 2021.” That means Johnson’s attempt to protect these criminals was pointless. It was not just wrong. It was dumb.

None of this is good. Jim Morton, the retired acting superintendent of the Allegheny County Police who spent 30 years in homicide — 20 as chief — says that video recordings are one of the greatest crime-solving tools we have. “Doorbell cameras and closed-circuit cameras are the first things we look for at a crime scene,” he says. “Once you get a good view of the suspects, somebody in the community knows them and steps up.”

Johnson has been up to his ears in lies since he chose to become a leader of the election deniers. He spread false claims of election fraud and signed an amicus brief asking the U.S. Supreme Court to invalidate Joe Biden’s victories in four key states. Even after the assault on the Capitol, he voted against certifying the results in Pennsylvania and Arizona.

When Johnson was elected the 56th speaker of the House, he said, “I believe that God has ordained and allowed each one of us to be brought here for this specific moment in this time. This is my belief.”

I am pretty sure that God does not want Johnson or anyone to harbor criminals who assaulted and severely injured police officers while trying to take over the legitimately elected government that was chosen by the people.

Johnson and his wife have a podcast called “Truth Be Told With Mike and Kelly Johnson.” It’s time he told the truth.

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