Inauguration Day with the Speaker of the House
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It's winter, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost almost anything. No, you can't get icicles on Uber Eats, but iced coffee, ice cream, or iceberg lettuce? Yes, we deliver those. Snowballs? That's a no, but mozzarella balls? Definitely yes. A maple tree? No, but maple syrup for your pancakes? Yes, because those are groceries, and Uber Eats delivers those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and everyday essentials like toilet paper and shampoo. Order Uber Eats now. From the Free Press live in D.C., this is Honestly, and I'm Barry Weiss. Being a Republican House Speaker is a little bit like marrying Henry VIII. At some point, your head will be chopped off.
But for now, Mike Johnson looks physically intact and also is in a position of incredible power. Two weeks ago, Johnson was re-elected Speaker of the House on the first ballot, which is saying something. Despite having only the narrowest of House majorities, he was able to unite the various factions of the warring Republican Party. The Moderates, the Freedom Caucus, the Raw Milk Caucus, the Libertarians, the Hawks, the Doves, and whatever we call Lauren Boebert. It was a tough thing to pull off, and it would only have taken a couple no votes to send him to that Republican Valhalla where John Boehner chain smokes and chugs Merlot, Paul Ryan does his pushups, and Kevin McCarthy throws darts at a photo of Matt Gaetz.
Now, Donald Trump will become President of the United States very shortly, and Mike Johnson, you, will have the thankless task, arguably, of shepherding his agenda through Congress. And because the Republicans control the House by only four seats, you're going to have to get close, I think, to some moderate Democrats, particularly those with constituents looking for a tax cut. So Speaker Johnson, officially, thanks for joining me on Honestly, and thanks for making the time on this busy weekend.
Thanks, Barry. It's a great delight. That's a very unique introduction. I haven't had one like that in a while.
Thank you so much. You like the visual of Paul Ryan doing the P90X or whatever it's called?
Very accurate, yes.
First simple question. Why do you want this job?
Great question. This might sound hokey to you, but I feel called to it. It's not an easy job. I mean, Newt Gingrich, who was a predecessor, of course, the most famous speaker still in my mind of the modern era, wrote an op-ed a few months back and said, poor Johnson has the most challenging speakership since the Civil War. And he noted all the reasons for that. It's a challenging time, but it's also a time of great opportunity for the nation. And we feel the weight of that, not in a burdensome way, but we understand that we're at a precipice as a nation. This election cycle was a big, Turning point, I think. I think we have an opportunity to fix things, to get back to common sense. And I'm excited by that.
So there are great challenges, great opportunity at the same time. But I'm convinced we're going to be able to deliver on this and we're going to do well for the country. So that's why we're here.
Since your predecessor, John Boehner, was pushed out of the speakership in 2015, then we had Paul Ryan, then we had Kevin McCarthy. It's a lot of drama and a lot of chaos. You look at the other side of the aisle, and Nancy Pelosi was able to run things with an iron fist. What is it about Republicans that make them so ungovernable or hard to harness?
You know, that's a really good question. We had a big election cycle, and so every day that we were not in session, almost literally, I was on the road. So I did over 350 campaign events, 250 cities, 40 states, logged enough miles to circle the globe five and a half times, campaigning to keep the majority. And we did by a narrow margin, but it was a success. But no matter where I was, coast to coast, this is a common question. How come? How come the Democrats stick together and Republicans don't? And here's my answer, and I think it will make sense to you. Democrats really are consistent in their philosophy. They think very much and operate very much like a union. They're very collectivist sort of in their worldview and their ideology.
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