Frequent MSNBC fill-in host Jason Johnson claimed Monday that Republicans were optimistic about their chances to win the 2022 midterm elections because they intended to "cheat." 

During an appearance on "Deadline: White House," Johnson joined host Nicolle Wallace and fellow MSNBC contributor Charlie Sykes in predicting former President Donald Trump's continued influence over the GOP, and accused Republicans of rigging future elections by passing "voter suppression laws" across the country that would "guarantee" them victories.

"[A] key thing to understand why Republicans are optimists for next year, even if they're sort of waving themselves and wrapping themselves in a Trump burrito, is they’re going to cheat. They’re just going to make voting laws throughout the country that guarantee that they’re going to win," he added. "They just figure that they're going to pass legislation to make it harder for Democrats to vote … They just figure, if we can pass enough voter suppression, wrap ourselves in Trump, and intimidate the other side, we can win in 2022."

After a clip played of Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., saying he would not support Trump if he was the Republican nominee for president in 2024, Wallace asked Sykes why Cassidy's stance wasn't "knocking some sense" into other Republicans.

Sykes said that Republicans still thought they were on their way to win the midterm elections, but predicted they were "going to pay a price" for continuing to allow Trump a strong influence within the party. 

"Not only are Republicans not trying to get off the Trump train, they’re fighting and scalping tickets to get on it," Johnson said.

Wallace later asked Johnson if he thought Republicans were taking the wrong lessons from seeing potential success in the upcoming elections.

"I think they’ve taken the right lessons, and the right lessons are you can rally people around a lie based on White supremacy and sexism and nationalism and homophobia and everything else like that," Johnson said. 

Despite the media's long history of decrying voter ID laws as racist and voter suppression, an overwhelming majority of Americans say they support their implementation. Polls also found strong support in making it easier to vote early.

Trump has not stated either way whether he will run for president again in 2024.

 MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace went to great lengths to hyping the campaign launch of liberal commentator-turned political candidate Matthew Dowd. 

Dowd, a political commentator and former Bush aide who has made regular appearances on MSNBC and CNN since his departure from ABC News, announced on Wednesday he was running as a Democrat for lieutenant governor in the red state of Texas. 

On "Deadline: White House," Wallace offered an enthusiastic introduction for her "old friend."

"For people who don't know you, you have such a well-rounded life experience that I think you bring to all analysis," Wallace began. "You certainly brought it to campaigns and you brought it to wearing your heart on your sleeve when you very publicly broke with George W. Bush and you come to it as a human and a friend and a dad. And I want to hear how that drove you what you did today."

Towards the end of a nearly nine-minute segment, the MSNBC host offered an endorsement of his character.

"As someone who's been in the room when you delivered difficult truths to people in power, I can attest to your ability the lay it out straight no matter the consequences," Wallace told her former Bush colleague before congratulating him on his campaign launch.

Wallace then invited Dowd to partake in two separate panel discussions, one on the Texas abortion ban and the other on the Democrat spending bill drama on Capitol Hill, as if he were MSNBC's run-of-the-mill political analyst. 

Dowd truly benefited from such exposure though, appearing for nearly half of the first hour of "Deadline: White House."

The candidate was also touted on "The ReidOut" while participating in a panel discussion about Jan. 6.

MSNBC host Lyin’ Brian Williams starts an interview with a US Army Vet by praising Biden’s ‘consequential’ speech, saying he didn’t run from it, but owned his decision to pull out of Afghanistan.

But US Army veteran Matt Zeller responded by saying he must’ve seen a different speech than everyone there and proceeded to rip into Biden’s speech hard:

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Williams complimented Biden’s speech, claiming "he didn’t run" from his responsibility to the Afghan people.

"He didn't run from it. He owned it. He owned the fact that, as he put it, the buck stops with him," Williams said.

"I hope he gets to own their deaths too," Zeller fired back.

Zeller spent most of his appearance criticizing Biden’s speech, as well as the administration’s actions in withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

"I feel like I watched a different speech than the rest of you guys. I was appalled. There was such a profound bold-faced lie in that speech. The idea we planned for every contingency? I have been personally trying to tell this administration since it took office. I have been trying to tell our government for years this was coming. We sent them plan after plan on how to evacuate these people. Nobody listened to us," Zeller said.

Zeller also slammed the administration for not having adequate plans to evacuate the thousands of Afghan citizens looking to escape Taliban rule.

Wallace previously complimented Biden’s speech saying "95% of the American people will agree with everything [President Biden] just said. 95% of the press covering this White House will disagree."

"For an American president to finally be aligned with what such an overwhelming majority of Americans think about Afghanistan is probably a tremendous relief to the American people," Wallace continued.

Wallace also appeared to defend the speech against Zeller, remarking how "6,000 troops is not adequate to do what you just described, which is still hopefully the mission of the administration." 

"We made these people a promise. The Taliban are now actively killing them, and if we don't take them they're going to die. That's the thing is we have the means to do this. We have just simply lacked this entire time the conviction to do the right thing," Zeller said.

Zeller also acknowledged his own guilt in leaving citizens behind for the Taliban, stating he’ll "never forgive" his country for doing so.

"I can't forgive myself and I'll never forgive my country for doing this. I know exactly what every Vietnam veteran has been warning me about now. I'm going to live with the moral injury for the rest of my life," Zeller said.