I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise given that this was broadcast on MSNOW, but somehow it still surprises me. Katy Tur was asking her panel of guests about something that Speaker Mike Johnson had said Sunday at the “Rededicate 250” rally on the mall in Washington, DC.
I watched Mike Johnson’s prayer in front of the crowd and this is the line that Tur is reacting to:
Those voices have seeked to distort the self-evident truth that we know so well, that our founders boldly proclaimed in the Declaration: That our rights do not derive from the government. They come from you, our creator and heavenly father.
Here’s Tur’s reaction when bringing it up on MSNOW to her panel of guests.
What about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from government? They come from you, our creator and heavenly father. Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?
As you’ll see, McKay Coppins stepped in to very gently correct Tur.
God talk is SO foreign to MS NOW. Katy Tur: What about this passage from Mike Johnson declaring that our rights do not derive from government? They come from you, our creator and heavenly father. Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?
McKay Coppins: I… pic.twitter.com/sfpykN5bYc— Tim Graham (@TimJGraham) May 18, 2026
Coppins didn’t want to lose his gig at MSNOW by pointing out how nonsensical and dumb her question was, so he just tries to sidestep it and move on to something else. But I’m not and MSNOW regular so I’m under no such obligation.
What Tur says here is so confused that I’m not sure what her point was. Usually when someone is confused I can kinda sorta see how they got there, but not this time. The suspicious passage she’s referring to is just a paraphrase of the Declaration of Independence which reads:
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.–That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…
The idea here, the one that Johnson actually mentioned twice in his prayer, is that rights (like life and liberty) are not granted by government but by God. Governments exist to secure those God-given rights.
There’s a lot that could be said about this brief passage, but arguably the most significant point is this: Because government didn’t give us our rights, it also can’t take them away. That’s the premise of the Bill of Rights which is famously a list of things that government may not do. You have a right to your own private beliefs. You have a right to speak your mind, including and especially in opposition to your government. Those words can be published and retransmitted by the press. You have a right to assemble with other like-minded people and to protest peacefully. And so on.
And the main point: Government can’t do a damn thing about it. It’s only job (so long as protests are peaceful) is to ensure your liberty to do these things persists.
Regular readers of this site know all of this but somehow Katy Tur does not. She seems deeply confused. In fact, her question for the panel, “Is this him putting God over the Declaration of Independence?” has to be one of the most confused ever uttered on that network, and that is saying something. It makes me wonder if she’s ever read the Declaration because she doesn’t seem to realize Mike Johnson has taken this shocking idea directly from it.
But let’s answer Tur’s question as best we can: The Declaration itself that is putting God over the Declaration and the Constitution and any other government document you might point to around the globe. It’s offering a universal statement about God and government, one not limited by time or place.
Of course no one is required to share these views but they are the ones that were foundational to the formation of the United States of America and they’re not exactly subtle either. Again, I’m not sure how you get to whatever age Katy Tur is and miss all of this.
If I’m being really generous, I think the plan (either Tur’s or the producers) was to do a Gorillas in the Mist segment about the strange Christian conservatives on the mall yesterday and Tur was primed to assume everything Mike Johnson was saying was extreme right-wing hate speech and not simply a quote from our founding documents. Still, it’s amazing no one was screaming in Tur’s ear to correct her.
Anyway, McKay Coppins managed to respond without breaking into laughter, so I guess he gets to keep appearing on MSNOW. He’s a bit off when he suggests our founding documents were meant to “codify” our unalienable rights. There were not meant to do that. But at least in his case I sort of get what he was trying to say. He’s a lot closer to the mark than Katy Tur.
Finally, if you’re so inclined, here’s Mike Johnson’s full prayer which is not at all scary or weird.
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