Politics & Power Quote by Nancy Johnson

“No one is above the law” is the kind of civic catechism Americans recite when the system feels shaky. Nancy Johnson deploys it not as poetry but as leverage: a patriotic baseline that corners the listener into agreement before she pivots to the real target. The phrase “not even the president” sharpens the blade, shrinking the office back down to a job subject to rules, not a personality cult. It’s an argument against exemption, timed for a moment when partisan loyalty tempts people to treat legal accountability as optional.

Then comes the deliberately legalistic hedge: “I believe perjury does meet at least the definition of high misdemeanor.” Johnson isn’t thundering about morality; she’s drafting a bridge between public outrage and constitutional machinery. The softeners (“I believe,” “at least”) signal a politician calibrating risk in real time: staking out principle while leaving room for procedural nuance and plausible deniability if the political winds shift. It’s also a subtle rebuke to those trying to reframe perjury as mere personal misconduct - she insists it’s a civic offense because it contaminates the justice system itself.

The context is the impeachment-era fight over whether lying under oath is impeachable. Johnson’s intent reads as institutional triage: preserve the idea that presidents answer to law, even if enforcing that ideal is messy, unpopular, or politically expensive. The subtext is a warning to her own party as much as the other: if you normalize presidential exceptionalism today, you inherit it tomorrow.