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Which they’re not, just because the guy doesn’t want to do photo ops and give press releases doesn’t mean he’s fake. Johnson was first elected to Congress less than 10 years ago. His son made a decision not to be a pawn for his adopted father’s political career to avoid the public, not his father; and the public are generally terrible, which makes it an appropriate and rational decision.

1. explain this screen grab from his own campaign website:

2. Recognizing the son wants no part of his political career doesn't mean disavowing said son, does it? Why on earth would would they say 'father of four' instead of 'father of five'?

Wikipedia also lists his family as being 4 children. every source I can say he has four children. I can see no photos on any variation of websearch I can find of Johnson with a some one both identified as his son, who is black. none. Maybe, some how, magically, nobody ever looked into that or posted pictures on line... ever... or maybe it was scrubbed.

I don't know. What I do know is scrubbing yourself out like that is only going to raise questions. because as you say, the public is... well terrible.

(edit:) There seems to be some prior interiviews where Michael is mentioned. In that article they talk- too briefly to be clear about it- an interview with Ms Day (I can't tell if she's the one asking the questions or being asked?) from the article-

In his public remarks over the years, Mr. Johnson describes Michael as his son and did not correct an interviewer who described Michael as “adopted.” Ms. Day said in an interview that the Johnsons did not formally adopt Michael because of the “lengthy adoption process.” Ms. Day declined to say whether Michael was using “Johnson” as his surname.

Mr. Johnson has spoken publicly about Michael largely when he has talked about race. He has described Michael as a “success story” and likened the experience of being a white couple adopting a Black teenager to the movie “The Blind Side,” the 2009 film that depicts a wealthy white family taking in an impoverished Black teenager who becomes a football star.
(end edit)

further, here's the 2020 PBS article he talks about him. Relevant quotes:

Yes, sure. We took Michael in almost 20 years ago. He was 14. I often — the easiest way to summarize the story is, I ask friends, have you seen the story “The Blind Side”? That was our story, except my Michael was not an NFL prospect, a similar story to that. And we took him in as our own. And Michael is now doing great. This is 20 years later. He’s in his mid-30s. He lives in California, four children of his own. He and Adonza (ph), they have a great family life. And he says to people, he shares his testimony that, were it not for our intervention in his life, that he would certainly have joined a gang, gotten on drugs, wound up in prison, or dead on the street somewhere. And that’s the harsh reality that we have here. What it’s taught me is, we now have four other children of our own. And my oldest son, Jack, ironically, this year is 14. And I have thought often through all these ordeals over the last couple of weeks about the difference in experiences between my two 14-year-old sons, Michael, being a black American, and Jack being white, Caucasian. They have different challenges. My son Jack has an easier path. He just does. The interesting thing about both these kids, Michael and Jack, is they’re both handsome, articulate, really talented kids gifted by God to do lots of things. But the reality is — and no one can tell me otherwise — my son Michael had a harder time than my son Jack is going to have simply because of the color of his skin. And that’s a reality. It’s an uncomfortable, painful one to acknowledge, but people have to recognize that’s a fact.

Any one you know whose actually adopted people? They do not make the kind of distinction he makes here. "My oldest son Jack ..." So; I say, either the guy doesn't exist, or something happened that caused the guy to not want to be part of Johnson's family.

It is interesting that a guy who supposedly learned about racism second hand, by raising a black child... is so deeply part of the anti-civil-rights crowd... is a bit shocking. And his issue with reparations is that "they have a culture of self reliance"?!

something smells off here. that's all I'm saying, really.