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.