Mike Johnson Gives First Interview After Being Elected House Speaker Transcript

America’s brand new speaker of the House, his first interview. Mr. Speaker, good to see you, sir.

Thanks, Sean. Welcome to Capitol Hill.

All right, two weeks ago, did you think … Have you gotten used to the word speaker yet?

I haven’t, Sean. I’ve been in the job about 48 hours now, and it’s kind of surreal, to be honest. I just want to say at the outset here, God be with the law enforcement officers that are handling that situation in Maine. Our prayers have been with the families of that tragedy. Everyone here in the house was dialed in on that all day and it’s really something, so just address that at the front end. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention it.

Already, though, you’re immersed in Democrats and this happens with almost every shooting incident, the immediate call by the left in this country. We need more gun laws, we need more legislation. What’s your answer to that?

At the end of the day, the problem is the human heart. It’s not guns, it’s not the weapons. At the end of the day, we have to protect the right of the citizens to protect themselves, and that’s the Second Amendment and that’s why our parties sense so strongly for that. I agree with the comments of your guests there. This is not the time to be talking about legislation. We’re in the middle of that crisis right now, but I just want you to know, and I want the American people to know that all the members of the house here are deeply concerned about the families involved and everyone, and we pray for the law enforcement officers that are doing that hard job tonight that most people do not have the bravery to do.

You talk about the human heart. If somebody really wants to kill innocent people, there’s a lot of ways they can do it beyond using a gun. I’m sure this will become a bigger issue throughout the days moving forward. Is there any specific gun law that you would look at or any new legislation you would look at?

Well, been on the job for 48 hours. We’ll see. I mean, there’ll be lots of discussion as there are after these heartbreaking tragedies, but your point is well taken. I mean, in Europe and in other places, they use vehicles to mow down crowds in parades where they’ve done that here in the United States. It’s not the weapon, it’s the underlying problem. I believe we have to address the root problems of these things and mental health obviously, as in this case, is a big issue and we’ve got to seriously address that as a society and as a government, and there’s lots of measures pending on that as well.

You got a very warm welcome from the DNC. They said you were an anti-abortion, MAGA extremist Mike Johnson. That was their first words.

Oh, yeah. Welcome to the job.

Welcome to your new job. Then they went on to say that you were the co-sponsor to institute an extreme abortion ban. We’ll get into detail nationwide. You want to cut Social Security and Medicare, and here’s some free advice from Mike Johnson and that is don’t get comfortable. We’ve been here before. This isn’t the same exact MAGA extremism that the American people have already rejected and they will do it again. I thought that was the warmest welcome you could ever want from the Democratic Party.

How about that? Yeah, welcome to the job. Look, they don’t know me. A lot of these people don’t know me and I think if they would talk to some of my colleagues here, even on the other side of the aisle that have worked with me for the seven years that I’ve been on Capitol Hill, they would tell them that those things are not true. Give me a chance. Let me have a chance to lead here and you’ll see what I’m really about.

Let me ask you, because a lot of people don’t know you, and before I get to some really heavy duty questions, issues of great national importance, what do you want people to know about you? There were things about you that I learned in the lead up to this interview. I didn’t know you didn’t legally adopt a young 14 year old, but you basically adopted him. It would’ve taken four years to finalize it and he happened to be African American and he was your first son and now you have four other children and one of them, well, this son was named Michael. Your other 14 year old is Jack. And you said some pretty deep, profound things that you think is harder for your African American son than your biological son in life. Are you saying that’s institutional racism in the country? What were you referring to?

No, it’s a reality, though. Having raised two 14-year-old boys in America in the state of Louisiana, they had different experiences and I’m not so sure it was all about skin color, but it is about culture and society. Michael, our first, came from a really troubled background and had a lot of challenges. Jack, on the other hand, was raised in our household from the time he was born. And it just struck me, Sean, that it’s a reality that there are different paths in life and people have lots of things they have to overcome.

(04:39)
And so, it gives you a lot of empathy. It allows you to see into the heart of people and really try to understand them better. And that comes in handy in this arena because we’re really expected to hate our colleagues on the other side of the aisle and beat them all the time as enemies, politically speaking, but you have to recognize that this is a system that was built upon disagreement. I mean, what the founders intended here in this legislative context is that we’re going to come to the table with very different philosophical ideas and core principles and we have to arm wrestle over that and reach consensus to move the ball forward for the American people. That’s what the system is built upon, and right now people are going to their corners and they’re refusing to talk. We’ve got to get over that.

I don’t know how we reconcile a lot of these issues, either believe in climate alarmism or energy independence. How do you reconcile that? How do you reconcile defund dismantle versus funding law enforcement and no bail laws versus bail laws? How do you reconcile secure borders or sanctuary states or cities? Very controversial issues, and I don’t know where the middle ground is. Do you see it?

There is less and less middle ground. Over the decades, the parties have grown very far apart. There’s a wide chasm now. If you rewound back 40 or 50 years, there wasn’t really a lot of difference between the Republican and Democrat parties. If you compared their platforms, there were nuances about policy, but they believed in the same things. They were trying to do what’s right for the country. The allegation here about some of our colleagues is that’s not really their agenda. Some of them really would like to trade what we have for a European-style socialist form of government. We know that that is a terrible idea, so we stand for our foundational principles.

(06:22)
What you have to do is get down to those core principles and argue, debate with your colleagues and use the facts. Show them the reality. Socialism is a dead end. Communism and Marxism are terrible things. It’s been responsible for the deaths of tens of millions of innocent people over the 20th century alone, right? That is not the path we want to go down. America is different and we are exceptional because we stand on certain foundational principles. I said in my speech the other night that … Was that last night? All my hours are running together now.

I think it was yesterday.

Yesterday I talked about the core principles of American conservatism, and that’s individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, and human dignity. Under each of those, there would be subcategories, but that’s what we stand for. I call them the core principles of American conservatism, but it’s really the core principles of America itself. We’re different. We’re exceptional. The reason we’re the freest, most powerful, most successful nation in the history of the world is because that’s what we stand for and those values and those principles are under assault right now and we have to defend them here every day with everything we have.

Let me ask you, you had a bipartisan briefing with President Biden, Hakeem Jeffries were there, other leaders were there. You got a phone call from President Biden. Tell us about it. How’d it go?

Well, I actually had a visit with the president at the White House today for about 15 minutes or 15 or 20 minutes. The other parties were running late, so it was he and I sitting there together. It was a meet and greet. I’d only met him once before. It was cordial and pleasant. I have no problem with President Biden as an individual, right? You respect the office. It’s a biblical admonition that you give honor where honor is due and that’s the honor, the respect that we have for the office. But he and I disagree on almost no policy, so we didn’t get into that too much today, Sean, but there’ll be time for that in the days ahead.

Is there any one thing you can think of, policy that you would say, “He’s done a really good job on this or that”?

I can’t. I can’t. I think it’s been a failed presidency and all the problems, some of those that you’ve articulated already at the outset of the program here were caused by policy choices, and that’s the problem I have with him. It’s philosophical.

Look, I’m sure if you’ve ever seen my show and I don’t know. I didn’t ask you if you’ve ever watched it, the president in my view has been struggling cognitively. It’s a significant decline that I see. I’m not sure if you saw the tape, the interview that he gave a gaggle on Air Force One when he was flying back from Israel, after, by the way, a lot of allied nations did not want to meet with him, leaders did not want to meet with him, which I found to be a pretty big snub. I don’t know if you saw that tape. Do you see in Joe Biden a cognitive decline and if so, is that a danger to the country?

I do. I think most of us do. That’s reality. This is not a personal slight to him. It has to do with age and acumen and everyone’s different. Everyone ages differently. Clearly, if you look at a tape of Joe Biden making an argument in the Senate Judiciary Committee a few years ago, and you see a speech that he delivers now, there’s a difference. Again, I mean it’s not a personal insult to him, it’s just reality.

(09:29)
And this is what’s concerning to us is that we cannot project weakness of any kind on the world stage right now. This is a dangerous time for all the things going on around the world. The world is a tinderbox. A strong America is good for the whole world, and we have to project strength. I mean, Reagan used to remind us all the time, it’s peace through strength. If America shows weakness, it invites aggression by our adversaries, and that’s what you’re seeing around the world. So I think that’s a really important thing to remember. And also Sean, also, remember, I’ve been watching your show as long as I can remember, all out on 25 years almost.

Love when people tell me, “I’ve been watching you since I’ve been in first grade.” I mean, it makes me feel really good.

I remember when your hair was dark, darker than mine.

It was a lot darker. By the way, speaker, I think you’re going to catch up pretty quick.

It’s already happening.

Especially with the smaller majority. Already, the press, the left have come at you and come at you hard. Specifically, I’ll give you two big issues. One on the issue, you once worked for the Alliance Defense Fund, a Christian advocacy group and comments you had made both in writing and advocacy for this group about homosexuality, calling it sinful, destructive, and not supporting gay marriage. Quote, “No clear right to sodomy in the Constitution.” You have been getting hammered on this and I want to ask you about it. I want to know exactly where you stand. Some of these comments were 15 years ago.

I don’t even remember some of them. I was a litigator that was called upon to defend the state

… state marriage amendments. If you remember back in the early 2000s, I think there was over 35 states, somewhere in that number, that the people went to the ballot in their respective states and they amended their state constitutions to say marriage is one man, one woman. Well, I was a religious liberty defense lawyer and I was called to go in and defend those cases in the courts. Let me state this very clearly, and there’s been questions about this, let me say where I am. Anybody that knows me will tell you this is true. I am a rule of law guy. I made a career defending the rule of law. I respect the rule of law. When the Supreme Court issued the Obergefell opinion, that became the law of the land. I respect the rule of law, but I also genuinely love all people, regardless of their lifestyle choices. This is not about the people themselves.

(11:41)
I am a Bible believing Christian. Someone asked me today in the media, they said, “It’s curious. People are curious. What does Mike Johnson think about any issue under the sun?” I said, “Well, go pick up a Bible off your shelf and read it. That’s my worldview. That’s what I’m believe.”

It’s your personal worldview.

It’s my personal worldview. But here’s the thing. Everybody comes to the House of Representatives with deep personal convictions, but all of our personal convictions are not going to become law. This is a big body of people. There’s 435 members in the house. You have to argue and find consensus in all of that. I have no agenda other than what’s best for the American people and to defend the rule of law, and that’s what we’re doing.

Well then, let me ask you on the issue of abortion where you’ve been very pro-life. Obviously that comes from your issue is faith. You had argued against Roe, bad law.

Yes.

Dobbs happened.

Yes.

That issue now has been sent back to the states. On either one of these issues, gay marriage, abortion, in the next 14 months as you’re going to be the Speaker of the House, assuming the motion to vacate never comes up, which I think is awful, it shouldn’t be there.

I think we’re going to change it.

Have a higher bar, certainly. 25 people instead of just any one member. But on those two issues where they’ve come at you so hard and you’re explaining your personal view and you’re kind of bifurcating it, or away from your political view, do you see any scenario where either one of those issues would be an agenda item for you and the Republicans for the next 14 months or at any point down the line?

First of all, on the marriage issue, no one has discussed that for as long as I can remember. This has been settled by the Supreme Court in the Obergefell opinion in 2015. That’s the decision Now, they changed the definition of marriage that had been regarded by basically every human society for 5,000 years, but when five justices on the Supreme Court changed it, that became the law of the land. I’m a constitutional law attorney. I respect that, and we move forward.

(13:37)
The abortion issue is different. The table was just reset with Dobbs opinion overturned Roe, which I thought was one of the worst, probably the worst Supreme Court opinion.

Roe v. Wade.

Roe v. Wade, yes. The most erroneous court opinion that had been issued.

So you like it back. You like the states to decide.

We argued, my entire career for 25 years, that the states should have the right to do this. There’s no national consensus among the people on what to do with that issue on a federal level, for certain. We have such big priorities in this moment right now, Sean. We have Israel being attacked. We have unrest. We have the Ukraine situation we’ve got to deal with. We have China being aggressive. We have Iran with all the meddling and China, Russia and Iran working together. This is a dangerous time. The economy is in the tank, the border’s overrun, people are dying from fentanyl poisoning, all of these issues. These are the frontline matters that have our attention right now and the rest of these things, they’re just using for political attacks.

Basically you’re saying these issues will not be coming up and you’re going to focus on the agenda items that you have laid out already and the ones you just mentioned, which we will go into some detail with. Let me ask you one other question on this, and this has come up as well. It’s controversial. You had authored legislation called The Stop, the Sexualization of Children Act of 2022. Okay. Now, I looked deeply into this act. Your critics have said, or dubbed it, it’s a federal don’t say gay measure. By the way, the word gay was never in the Florida legislation in fairness to Governor DeSantis, and yet when you look at exactly what this is, it would prohibit the use of federal funds to develop, implement, facilitate, or fund any sexually oriented program event literature for children under the age of 10. Now, a lot of our kids in a lot of school districts around the country, they can’t read, write, do math, science. They’re not learning history, and they certainly need to learn computers. To the age of 10, very specifically, but you’re not talking about anything beyond that.

No. If you poll this anywhere in the country, almost any state, any community, they’re going to say Moms and Dads should be the ones responsible for talking about these sensitive issues with their children, not the public school system. I’ll take that debate anywhere, Main Street in any Town Hall, in any city in America. I would love for them to challenge us on that because that’s what the American people believe and that’s what I believe.

Let me ask, I have a lot of questions. As you point out, there is a lot going on in the world right now. Let me throw some numbers at you because I think they’re very important. We’ve got war in Europe, we’ve got Ukraine and got Russia, and it seems very precarious there. Already, Joe Biden has given $76.8 billion to Ukraine. He wants $61 billion more. He wants 14 billion to go to Israel, and then he wants to put money on the border probably to satisfy conservatives in the house and get their support on Ukraine, for example, which seems to be his top priority. A big disparity in the amount of money.

(16:38)
I have some criticisms about the issue of Ukraine. Number one, if you’re going to fight a war, you should fight it to win it. I thought the President made a horrible mistake by denying MIGS that were offered by Poland. I think the President made a horrible mistake trying to put handcuffs on the Ukrainian army led by Zelinsky on the issue of how they will fight and what weapons they can and cannot use, like cluster bombs. I don’t like the fact that Europe doesn’t pay their fair share. So they’ve got 78 billion, he wants another 61 billion. How will you deal with the issues that he… He wants to tie all of these issues together, which now gets into the budgetary process. Will you go issue by issue?

I told the staff, the White House today, that our consensus among house Republicans is that we need to bifurcate those issues. I agree with your assessment in Ukraine and that’s why the American people are demanding some real accountability for the use of those dollars. Now, we can’t allow Vladimir Putin to prevail in Ukraine because I don’t believe it would stop there and it would probably encourage and empower China to perhaps make a move on Taiwan. We have these concerns. We’re not going to abandon them, but we have a responsibility, a stewardship responsibility over the precious treasure of the American people, and we have to make sure that the White House is providing the people with some accountability for the dollars, and we want to know what the objective there is. What is the end game in Ukraine? The White House has not provided that. I was at the White House for a couple of hours today and I told the staff there that this is where we are. This is where the House of Republicans are. We’re going to look at Israel separate.

That kind of money, is that America having a proxy war with Putin and Russia?

It’s a great concern. We’ve got a group of our colleagues here in the House led by Mike Garcia out of California, brilliant legislator and a Top Gun pilot. Some of our veterans have gotten together. Dan Crenshaw is involved in this and others. They came up with a document that presents 12 critical questions for the White House to answer as a condition of our supplying the additional support. These are not hard questions, Sean. These are things the White House should be forthcoming about. I delivered that myself.

Oh, you did deliver it to the President?

I delivered it myself today, and to the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan.

Did he read it?

He says he’s studied it.

Going to. He’s going to study it tonight during the show.

Yes. We want to be cooperative. We need to work together on this, but we owe it to the people to know what the plan is, where the money’s going to be spent, and we need some auditing for the dollars that we’ve already sent over there. These are not tough questions.

(18:56)
Israel is a separate matter. We’re going to bring forward a standalone Israel funding measure over $14 billion, but it’s going to be…

It’s 14 billion enough?

Well, Israel’s requested a little less than that actually. The White House did, by way of Israel, and 14.5 billion specifically is what we’re looking at. It’s a very specific number tied to very specific measures, but here’s the important thing that distinguishes House Republicans from the other team, we’re going to find pay-fors in the budget. We’re not just printing money to send it overseas. We’re going to find the cuts elsewhere to do that.

Let me ask you this. In Israel, it’s very complicated. Syria is now firing missiles into Israel. The Houthi Rebels, which I don’t know why Joe Biden… They were once designated a terrorist group. He’s taken away that designation. Why, I don’t know. They tried to fire missiles into Israel. In the North you have Hezbollah and you have Lebanon. In the South where Gaza killed 1400, including 30 Americans and Americans are being held hostage. Beyond the money part, is there any involvement you see or any reason for any military involvement by the United States? Would Congress support that? Because it seems like with the maneuverings of our Navy and other indications, Special Forces, maybe to rescue American hostages, any movement that you would support that you can think of now?

It’s a very delicate situation. It changes by the hour. We’re watching it very closely. One thing that House Republicans are resolved on is that we must stand with our most important ally in the Middle East and that’s Israel. We will. We certainly hope that it doesn’t come to boots on the ground. If it comes to that, and we communicated this to the White House staff as well today, that we have the Article one power in the legislative branch of government, and they have Article two. They have very limited authority on what they can do to respond without coming to Congress to seek consent. Even my Democrat colleagues, Sean, that are committees or jurisdiction understand this, in the Foreign Affairs Committee, there’s a purpose for that. The reason the framers put that into the Constitution is that they wanted a multitude of wise counsel to decide upon military intervention matters on a declaration of war. They wanted the duly elected representatives of the people to make that decision collectively and not one commander in chief sitting in an office.

Here’s my worst fear, worst case scenario for the Middle East. Israel will be fighting a two front war, Gaza, Hamas in the South. As soon as the ground incursion, which could happen any minute begins, I would expect more rockets to be fired from the north, from Lebanon. Hezbollah. They both have something in common, that they’re getting military strategy weaponry, money support from Iran. That’s the head of the snake.

(21:41)
Now we have another problem. Syria has involved itself in this conflict. Another problem, the Houthis seem to be wanting to involve themselves and you’ve had comments made by the leaders of Iran that they themselves may get involved in a conflict. If that happens, correct me if you think I’m wrong,

I would say, all bets are off in the Middle East. We could have a full out war in the Middle East, Israel at the center of it. And at that point, if Israel’s existence is put in jeopardy, I don’t think Prime Minister Netanyahu, who I’ve known for almost 30 years, I don’t think there’s anything he won’t do to preserve and protect his country from people that have committed their lives to destroy it.

He has to do that. And around here, people throw around the phrase, existential threat. They have an existential threat every day. I mean, their neighbors want to eliminate them and wipe them off the map. So, prime Minister Netanyahu is resolved. I’ve spent time with him personally, I know him as well. I think he’s a strong leader at this important time, and I think he’s going to do what is necessary. And, America will back him up.

(22:48)
I mean, they tell us, when we’re in Israel and you’ve been there, they say the reason that we are able to sustain ourselves and survive is because everyone knows that our big ally is America. And that’s an important role that we have in the world. We’re not the world’s policemen, but a strong America, as I said, is good for the whole world, because it’s the perception that we would be there to defend freedom. And that’s been our role. That’s the Reagan Doctrine. A lot of our friends in our party are becoming more isolationist, and I understand the concerns. We can’t be dropping money out of helicopters all around the world, because we also have a $33.5 trillion federal debt of our own.

I saw a sign on the way in, it said 33.6. So, it went up over-

Did we go to six? Great. See?

Probably from this afternoon.

Exactly. It goes so fast you can’t track it. That’s the concern. We deeply care and are concerned about all nations of free people around the world, but we have to take care of our own house first. And so, that’s also part of this delicate calculation and the decision.

I’ve been to Israel during a flare up in, I believe it was 2014, and at that point I got to see upfront and go inside the terror tunnels that are built by Hamas. By the way, all of the money and resources, that was given to the Palestinian people for infrastructure, for schools and hospitals.

Yeah.

But, they have this massive network of terror tunnels. And when you go inside, it just is mind-numbing that this is how they’re spending their time, because they want to kill Israelis or take them hostage. But it taught me a lot about … And being in border cities. One border city in particular, is Sderot. 10,000 rockets they’ve been hit with in 10 years, and these kids play indoors in bunker playgrounds. My question to you is simple. Joe Biden wants to give $100 million to the Palestinians for humanitarian relief. Sounds great on paper. I have zero confidence, one penny will make it to the Palestinian people, because Hamas has been forcing people to stay and pointing guns and shooting at the Palestinians that want to leave.

Right? They use the Palestinians as shields. They don’t even provide the people with clean drinking water. We’re supposed to believe they’re going to use US aid for humanitarian purposes. Count me as a skeptic, okay? We’ve got to be very careful about what we’re doing there. You do not want to further empower the terrorist groups. Our heart goes out to innocent Palestinian people, of course, as we do to anyone who’s in a terrible situation like that. But we have to be very discerning in our policy and in our approach to this. And so, that’s why we’re demanding, House Republicans are demanding more information from the White House, so that we can help and make these critical decisions. Look, we’re going to stand by Israel, but we have to be careful in how it’s done.

What about the hundred million for humanitarian relief of the Palestinians?

I think it’s a tough issue. I mean, we’re going to have to see what that is tied to. And I’ll tell you, the House Democrats, of course, are very resolute on that, and they try to portray us as being uncaring. Look, we care about that as well, but we have to be very careful that we’re not further funding terrorist organizations that are trying to wipe Israel off the map.

Can you explain why, then President Obama, vice President Biden did this billion dollar deal with Iran? Can you explain why Joe Biden made a deal with the Iranians for $6 billion to be freed up in money that was held, that they had no access to?

Yeah, we’re in fits over that. I don’t understand it at all. I don’t understand most of their foreign policy, and I think it’s gotten us in the shape that we’re in. We have big disagreements with them. We’re asking for, and demand an accountability on that as well. And the White House has to improve how they’re messaging this and how they’re explaining it to people, because we all have to understand that. We have a right to. This is the precious treasure of the American people. And if you’re sending Iran money, we know that Iran is directly tied to all this. These are, Hamas and Hezbollah are proxies of Iran, and they’re tied in now with Russia and China. I mean, it is a new axis of evil. That’s how we see it. And so, it has to be addressed accordingly.

Would you say if Israel, with all the funding of terror and all these terror organizations, are they within their right to fight back, and go directly at Iran?

Of course, that was, as you noted, the first act of my speakership, is that we pass that resolution to articulate that and make it very clear where we stand. The House is back in business and we’re going to stand with Israel.

Let’s ask, I call it, the new axis of evil. China, Russia, Iran. How big a threat?

It’s huge. It’s the biggest threat. Since World War II, we have been the big kid on the block. We’re the last real superpower. And after the USSR fell, we’ve been unrivaled. Now, China is a near peer-to-peer adversary to us now. And of course, their goal is to rebuild the empire. And so, we’re doing everything we can to ensure that we maintain our military superiority. We’re the only nation that has the ability to project power and force like that around the globe right now. But China’s doing its best to encroach upon that power. And you see, they’re even putting outposts around us. They’re buying up farmland in states here in the US. All of these things have to be addressed, at the federal level, at the state level with the legislatures, and even in some of these localities. We have Chinese, CCP-owned companies that are coming in, and open shop on Main Street in some towns, in our small towns.

They’re buying our farmland.

Yes.

They’re buying our ranch land, and they’re buying land near military installations.

Yes.

Would we be allowed to buy it there?

Of course not.

Of course not.

Of course not. And they allowed a Chinese spy balloon to float unimpeded across the country for eight days. We scratch our heads a lot around here about these Biden decisions, and I don’t know, it may be tied in some way to, I don’t know, some of the money they receive from some of these folks.

Well, you are on the House Judiciary Committee. We’ve been watching the House Oversight Committee with James Comer. Let me ask you, there’s issues involving two congressmen in particular, a Democrat and a Republican. George Santos, the Republican. Many charges have been filed against him. And then the issue of Congresswoman Tlaib and others, and this talk of censure and talk of removal. Do you support either?

We’re working through those issues. I’ll tell you, I talked to the authors of some of these resolutions today that want to deal with that. Here’s the reality, Sean. We have a four seat majority in the house. It is possible, that number may be reduced even more in the coming weeks and months. And so, we’ll have what may be the most razor-thin majority in the history of the Congress. We have no margin for error. And so, George Santos is due, due process, right? My understanding is, I think he’s appearing in a federal court tomorrow, and we have to allow due process to play itself out. That’s what our system of justice is for.

He’s not convicted, he’s charged.

Not convicted, he’s charged. And so if we’re going to expel people from Congress just because they’re charged with a crime or accused, that’s a problem.

Joe Biden has allowed over seven and a half million people into this country illegally. It’ll be probably over 8 million. Even people on terror watch lists, even people from countries like Iran and Syria. How do you get the border secure? And what is your assessment of Secretary of Homeland Security Mayorkas? Should he be impeached?

Listen, you know that my duties here have included Judiciary and the Select Committee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government. In my assessment, almost every federal agency under the Biden administration has been weaponized. The very agencies that were designed to protect and serve the people are now being used against them, and we have many examples of that. And you’ve talked about all of it on your show before.

(30:17)
Look, Mayorkas has been an abject failure in his position. I believe he has committed impeachable offenses, and I’ve been on a record saying that for a long, long time. In fact, he appeared in an oversight hearing in our House Judiciary Committee, we have jurisdiction over his department, less than four months into office, and I saw where this was headed. And I told them in a clip that went viral, “Mr. Mayorkas, you need to get your resume prepared,” because I thought he was headed towards a dead end on this. Look, the investigations are going forward. Jamie Comer and the oversight committee are doing an exceptional job. Jim Jordan, who’s the chairman of Judiciary has helped lead on that. We’ve gotten a lot of information on all these issues.

You’re on the Judiciary Committee. Let me ask you, do you believe that Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, do you believe our FBI has been politicized? Do you believe it’s been weaponized? Do we have a dual justice system?

Absolutely. We have a two-tiered system of justice, and that erodes the people’s faith in our system of justice itself. And this is what I reminded Merrick Garland, when he was in front of us, the attorney general, Christopher Wray at the FBI. The greatest threat here is not these individual issues, it’s that the people are losing their faith in our system of justice. And, Sean, you cannot maintain a constitutional republic, a government of, by and for the people, if the people doubt that the system is fair. If they believe there’s two tiers of justice, then the system doesn’t work at all. And so, I think Garland’s been a great threat. I think he’s the worst attorney general in the history of the United States.

Joe Biden swore to the American people, both as a candidate and as president, that not one time did he ever speak to his son, his brother, or anybody for that matter, about their foreign business dealings. We know that is a flat out lie. We’ve learned from James Comer and his investigation that we are talking about tens of millions of dollars, taken in from a lot of adversarial countries. Some of our top geopolitical foes like China, Russia.

Yeah.

Ukraine, Romania, Mexico, other countries, tens of millions. They’ve discovered all of these shell corporations. They’ve discovered, nine particular Biden family members have been paid. And then you have the issue of Joe on tape admitting that he used our money, taxpayer money, to leverage a billion dollars in loan guarantees, which was Obama administration policy, to fire a prosecutor investigating his son. Well, one of the benefits of that, his son continued to get paid for a job, he admits he had no experience in, at a time where he was dealing with a drug problem. What’s that sound like to you?

That’s a pretty good recitation of the facts. And as John Adams said, “Facts are stubborn things. They’re hard to ignore.” I believe the documents are proving all that, as my good brother Jamie Comer often says, “The bank records don’t lie,” so we have the receipts on so much of this now. It’s a real problem. That’s the reason that we shifted

… lifted into the impeachment inquiry stage on the President himself, because if in fact all the evidence leads to where we believe it will, that’s very likely impeachable offenses. That’s listed as a cause for impeachment in the constitution, bribery and other high crimes and misdemeanors. Bribery’s listed there, and it looks and smells a lot like that. I think the evidence …

(33:21)
We’re going to follow the truth where it leads. We’re going to engage in due process because, again, we’re the rule of law party. I know people are getting anxious and they’re getting restless and they just want somebody to be impeached, but we don’t do that like the other team. We have to base it upon the evidence, and the evidence is coming together. We’ll see where it leads.

Let me go back to the budget, if I may, for a second.

Sure.

This whole issue of regular order, we have four of the 12 appropriations bills that have already been dealt with. My understanding is that’s about 70% of the budget.

Yeah.

So you have eight more to go. You’ve talked about a short-term CR that you would be willing to maybe have until January or maybe even till April. We talk about a clean CR. Would you have conditions? For example, Chip Roy and Byron Donalds had a plan, okay, well, we’ll give you a CR, but it’s not going to be clean. We’re going to cut government spending by 8% and we’re going to secure the border and protect our military and veterans. Would you have conditions to a CR?

I think we have to if indeed we do that. November 17th, of course, is the deadline that was extended.

Yeah, you got about-

It’s coming quickly.

… 21 days

And we’re speeding it up as quickly as possible. That was my commitment to my colleagues when they named me Speaker of the House, and that work began today. In fact, we passed one of the approps bills just a couple of hours ago before you arrived here. We got it off the House floor, the energy and water bill. That was a big box that we had to check, and we did that.

(34:47)
And so, we’re going forward. Chip and Byron are at the table with others. We’re working through this with the ideas and trying to ensure that if another stop-gap measure is required, that we do it with certain conditions, and I think they’ll be conditions the American people can live with and a consensus that we can build around here in the House.

Let me ask you this. We have two-thirds of this country now are living paycheck-to-paycheck.

Yes.

Many of those people can’t afford bare necessities. I know Biden’s been crowing about Bidenomics. I know they got good numbers today. However, a lot of economists I spoke to earlier today, this doesn’t look good at all. They think we’re in a bubble that is about to burst and it’s going to be even worse, especially in the housing market. New home construction is stopping. Sale of preexisting home’s a disaster.

(35:36)
How bad is this economy? How long can we sustain another, what, $2 trillion in debt that Joe Biden took on last year? How do we get inflation down once and for all?

(35:49)
I have friends of mine just three years ago, they were getting interest rates at … A fixed-rate mortgage at 30%. Now it averages 8%. Nobody’s going to sell their home and buy another home because it’s thousands of dollars more for the same type of home.

It grinds the economy to a halt. It’s a disaster. That’s the word you use and that’s the appropriate word. These are policy choices that got us in this situation. If you remember, if you rewind in your mind back to right before the pandemic began, in the Trump administration, we had the greatest economy in the history of the world, and it wasn’t by happenstance. It’s because we cut taxes, cut regulations. We focused on American energy dominance. We were doing and following all the policies that led to economic success and growth for all Americans. Everyone in every demographic, all boats were rising.

(36:36)
We can achieve that again, but you have to do almost exactly the opposite of what the Biden administration is pursuing and doing. This is not rocket science, but we’re so far down the road now that we have to make these changes quickly. We’re trying to urge our Democratic colleagues to take a look, again, at the basic facts. I mean interest rates are so high now, they’re going to continue to rise apparently.

Double-digit. I could see it coming. All right, let me ask maybe the question this way, because you do have such a small majority, and obviously that didn’t help Kevin McCarthy. I think you should get rid of the motion to vacate and raise the bar dramatically. 20, 25 people at least.

(37:12)
My question is specifically on the economy. If you pass your budgets in the House, you’re going to send it over to the Senate. They’re going to rip it up line-by-line. You’ll go into conference, but the only way you can succeed is if you as speaker are able to hold your slim majority.

Yes.

That’s going to be a herculean task. How do you plan on doing that?

With truth and transparency and relationships. This is a business that’s based on that. My colleagues trust me. I’m grateful for that. It’s earned. I’m going to do well by them where we’re going to govern well. We’re going to show the American people we can.

(37:53)
When you get into the negotiations and the conference committee, the Speaker of the House and the leader of our party has to have a strong hand. And so, if we can keep the team together, keep rowing in the same direction.

(38:03)
Look, everybody’s got to give up on some of their preferences. None of us are going to get everything we want. I’ll never ask any of my colleagues to compromise core principles because I share those principles with them.

(38:14)
But Ronald Reagan used to teach us, “I’d rather get 80% of what I want than go over the cliff with a flag waving.” I still believe in that idea, and I’m very optimistic. I am bullish on the future of America. I am bullish on our chances to change the way Washington works, Sean.

(38:27)
We have a once in a lifetime opportunity here, and that’s the vision I’ve cast to my colleagues that believe it to my core. We’re going to take this day-by-day, decision-by-decision, but keep everybody together and move the ball forward for the American people. I genuinely believe that we can get this done.

One of the things that I have said over and over again to anybody that’ll listen, although I can look in this camera and say, honestly, nobody ever listens to me-

Not true. Not true.

… but I try, is it’s my strong belief that all Republicans, you’re either going to win together or you’re going to be … In the eyes of the American people, you’re going to win on your agenda or you’re going to lose. I don’t see any way of winning if you don’t all stick together.

(39:06)
I know you have this disparate group of egos, if you will. I hope everybody will maybe hear your admonition and work together as a team and go forward, fix our border. Can we become energy-dominant and maybe start paying down our debt? Can we come up with sound foreign policy to help out our allies in a dire time for them?

(39:31)
I mean these challenges run deep. Then you have the issue of law and order, safety, security, open borders. Pretty scary times. Do you think this country’s in decline?

I think right now we’re in very desperate times. I think the hour is late and the crisis is great. But here’s why I’m encouraged. In previous generations of Americans, from the framers, the founders of this country, all the way through, at times of the revolutionary period, the civil war, the Great Depression, the other world wars, when the leaders here got in trouble that was beyond the scope of what they could solve themselves individually or collectively, you know what they did? They sought divine guidance for it. We have In God We Trust right above the rostrum there, and I pointed that out in my speech.

Is this the Ben Franklin moment?

It is a Ben Franklin moment.

Constitutional Convention.

Exactly right. It’s the same thing. We’re calling one another to humble ourselves and recognize that the challenges are so great. But that’s where real opportunity is presented.

(40:23)
I believe that God is not done with America yet, okay? I still believe in that motto. It’s not just a quaint saying to me. It’s what the nation was founded upon, this belief. It’s what distinguishes us from all these other communist, Marxist, socialist countries around the world. It’s the key to our greatness, and we ought to appeal to that. I believe if we do, that God is going to give us His favor, and I believe we’re going to solve these problems.

I did ask you before the show, and I’ll make this the last question. I said … Because I believe that … If you take this majority and you can somehow pull these disparate groups together, I do believe it would be good for the country, because there’s a … I’m very clear about my conservatism. I believe those policies are best for our country, and I want the best for our country.

[inaudible 00:41:07].

This country, I’ve had a life, frankly, that’s undeserved. I just really … So I asked you, I said, “Would it be okay if we came back … ” When you get settled. You’ve had less than 48 hours. We appreciate you doing the interview, and bring the disparate groups in a room and do it for an hour and see what issues that we can find full agreement on. I would like to know what those issues are and where the disagreements are. Would you be willing to have us back?

Of course. We’re working on that, and that’s a great admonition. Look, this place is filled with people of good faith. They have deep conviction, and they understand the necessity of working together, [inaudible 00:41:41].

There are some big egos, Mr. Speaker.

Yeah, well, but Washington has that sometimes. We’re going to work through it. I’m optimistic.

All right. Mr. Speaker, we appreciate your time.

Thank you. Sure.

God speed. Thank you for being with us.

Thank you. Yeah.

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