Interview: Speaker Mike Johnson on Dem half-baked astroturfing, President Trump’s Golden Address, reconciliation, and more: "We keep winning"
THE LOWDOWN:
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) sat down with the Reporter’s Matthew Foldi to discuss reconciliation, President Trump’s Golden Address, and more.
Johnson called out the legacy media for shifting from drags against his ability to pass a reconciliation bill to making wild claims that a budget bill will destroy the country, calling it “total misinformation.”
Legislation-wise, Johnson said that House Republicans may look to pass the SAVE Act “as a standalone” bill and that he thinks the bill will pass the legislation. The speaker also said House Republicans are looking to stand up for law enforcement and pass the Police Act, saying the lower chamber GOP has “a lot of votes that comport with common sense.”
As for Rep. Al Green’s (D., Texas) disturbance during President Trump’s Golden Address, Johnson said the outburst was “a gift” to the GOP but was “really shameful.”
Amid the legacy media’s hyper scrutiny of President Donald Trump and Republicans writ-large, a stalwart Louisiana man stands in defiance of the half-baked narrative the Democrat-controlled machine continues pushing on deaf ears.
That man is House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.), a devout Christian conservative man and key ally of President Trump in the lower chamber.
Johnson, who is busy working hard to Make America Great Again with his fellow GOP colleagues, took time to speak with the Washington Reporter’s own Matthew Foldi after the president’s legendary Golden Address on Tuesday night and the House passing its budget resolution, which many in the media believed would be impossible.
Johnson noted that “most of the Hill press corps and the media” are “rooting” for the GOP to “fail,” and that their “game is to try to create a division in our conference.”
“We ignore them and get the job done. They don't seem to understand that we're constantly underestimated,” Johnson said. “It's, in my view, not a bad thing to be underestimated. I don't really mind it that much.”
“Sometimes I think the media equates the length of our decision process with indecision and it's exactly the opposite,” Johnson continued. “What we're doing is working with the body, going through these deliberate processes, so that by the time we get to the end product, everyone's comfortable with it, and they can vote for it. So, we're misunderstood and we're underestimated, but that's okay.”
“We keep winning,” he added.
Johnson called out the legacy media for shifting from drags against his ability to pass a reconciliation bill to making wild claims that a budget bill will destroy the country, calling it “total misinformation.”
“We apparently shocked the Democrats. They didn't think this could actually happen, but it is, because we're going to fulfill these big campaign promises and deliver the America First agenda,” Johnson said.
“I think that the biggest piece of misinformation, obviously, is on Medicaid. They made that their cause célèbre. They had signs on the floor during the president's speech. The president has been crystal clear that we are going to save and preserve Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid, and we've all said the same thing at the same time, there's an enormous amount of fraud, waste, abuse and inefficiencies in all those programs, including Medicaid. So one estimate is $50 billion a year is lost in Medicaid fraud alone. And so we have a moral obligation to fix that. We have a moral obligation to make sure that Medicaid is going to beneficiaries who are actually eligible to receive it.”
Johnson also took aim at the Democrats’ low-effort astroturfing campaign targeting GOP town halls with hecklers, protesters, and opponents.
“I'm one who has always enjoyed the live town halls, and, until I became Speaker, I did them routinely all throughout the district,” Johnson said. “Even when opponents or hecklers showed up, I enjoyed that.”
“But what's happened now is that this has become a well-organized project that is sometimes funded by George Soros groups and others, where they will go and just flood the zone,” Johnson continued. “So you'll have people come in from outside the district. They bus them in sometimes. They show up an hour and a half or two hours early to the event. They fill all the seats in, wherever the venue is. And then the actual constituents of the member of Congress can't even get in the building, and so it's of no use in that way.”
“You're just set up for an ambush so they can get a sound bite or a clip on their iPhone. So that doesn’t benefit anyone they represent,” the speaker added, noting he has advised House Republicans to not “play along” with “George Soros’ game.”
Legislation-wise, Johnson said that House Republicans may look to pass the SAVE Act “as a standalone” bill and that he thinks the bill will pass the legislation. The speaker also said House Republicans are looking to stand up for law enforcement and pass the Police Act, saying the lower chamber GOP has “a lot of votes that comport with common sense.”
As for Texas Democrat Rep. Al Green’s disturbance during President Trump’s Golden Address, Johnson said the outburst was “a gift” to the GOP but “really shameful.”
“But if the Democrats want to make a 77-year-old heckling Congressman the face of their resistance, then so be it, but we're not going to allow it,” Johnson said. “I flipped to CNN late for their panel discussion after his speech. A lot of their viewers disapproved of that, and approved of Trump’s remarks.”
“On CNN!” he added.
Below is a transcript of the interview between the Washington Reporter’s Matthew Foldi and Speaker Mike Johnson, lightly edited for clarity.
Washington Reporter:
We have to start by talking about President Trump’s Joint Address; did you think that Al Green was going to be the Democrat for you to kick out?
Speaker Mike Johnson:
That was a gift, it was really shameful, but if the Democrats want to make a 77 year old heckling Congressman the face of their resistance, then so be it, but we're not going to allow it. I flipped to CNN late for their panel discussion after his speech. A lot of their viewers disapproved of that, and approved of Trump’s remarks. On CNN!
Washington Reporter:
They go from an 80 year old president to a 77 year old Al Green. In recent weeks, we’ve seen that every media outlet, including on the right, said the House would never pass the budget resolution, and that you couldn't deliver it. You're underestimated time after time after time. What misconception exists about you, your conference, and your leadership in guiding this very fragile majority?
Speaker Mike Johnson:
Well, most of the Hill press corps and the media is rooting for us to fail, the game is to try to create a division in our conference, and they try to divide Republicans against one another, and chambers against one another. We ignore them and get the job done; they don't seem to understand that we're constantly underestimated. It's, in my view, not a bad thing to be underestimated. I don't really mind it that much; what my leadership style is, and this is really by necessity when you have a small majority as we do that, is I'm trying to decentralize the Speaker’s office and really push the more of the decision making down to the actual body. That's what the Founding Fathers intended: to empower the members so that decisions are made sort of bottom up instead of top down, and that's a very effective way to do it, and it's required in a time with a very slim margin like we have, everyone needs to feel like they participate. It takes a long time sometimes to go through that process. So sometimes I think the media equates the length of our decision process with indecision and it's exactly the opposite. What we're doing is working with the body, going through these this deliberate processes, so that by the time we get to the end product, everyone's comfortable with it, and they can vote for it. So we're misunderstood and we're underestimated, but that's okay. We keep winning.
Washington Reporter:
The media went from saying that you couldn't pass reconciliation to now saying that it's going to destroy the country. What are the misconceptions that you've already seen in the week or so since you've passed this that you want to clear up for both your own conference and for the American people?
Speaker Mike Johnson:
Total misinformation. We apparently shocked the Democrats. They didn't think this could actually happen, but it is, because we're going to fulfill these big campaign promises and deliver the America First agenda. I think that the biggest piece of misinformation, obviously, is on Medicaid. They made that their cause célèbre. They had signs on the floor during the president's speech; the president has been crystal clear that we are going to save and preserve Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid, and we've all said the same thing at the same time, there's an enormous amount of fraud, waste, abuse and inefficiencies in all those programs, including Medicaid. So one estimate is $50 billion a year is lost in Medicaid fraud alone. And so we have a moral obligation to fix that. We have a moral obligation to make sure that Medicaid is going to beneficiaries who are actually eligible to receive it. We have illegal aliens on the program. So we're going to go through and root all of that out, carve it out, but not affect the benefits to people who are eligible to receive it. And the Democrats have heard us say this 1,000 times, but they're they're ignoring it, and they're engaging in their misinformation campaign so the people will see soon enough.
Washington Reporter:
Across the Hill, the Senate Republicans right now are debating whether these Medicaid savings should be on the table. They're not looking at cuts to benefits, but they are looking at things like work reform. Where do you see yourself about the work requirements?
Speaker Mike Johnson:
The work requirement reform is an important innovation. It's something that we're looking at, but that doesn't kick anybody off their benefits. It gives them an opportunity to experience the dignity that is found in work, and it's about an 80 percent or higher issue with the voters. It holds very well because it comports with common sense. Medicaid was intended to be a temporary safety net. It was supposed to be for pregnant women and children who are really struggling, or people with disabilities or the elderly. But what's happened in recent years, especially after the Obama expansion, is you have people who have gotten on the program and who have no business being there at all. If you're an able bodied man under the age of 40 with no physical infirmity or disability, you need to be working, and we're going to help you do that.
Washington Reporter:
It's clear that as you and your colleagues are going home to districts across America, there is a very obvious astroturf campaign by Democrats to flood these town halls. How are you telling your colleagues to navigate that situation while also being able to talk directly to their constituents?
Speaker Mike Johnson:
I'm one who has always enjoyed the live town halls, and until I became Speaker, I did them routinely, all throughout the district, even when opponents or hecklers showed up, I enjoyed that. But what's happened now is that this has become a well-organized project that is sometimes funded by George Soros groups and others, where they will go and just flood the zone. So you'll have people come in from outside the district. They bus them in sometimes. They show up an hour and a half or two hours early to the event. They fill all the seats in, wherever the venue is. And then the actual constituents of the member of Congress can't even get in the building, and so it's of no use in that way. You're just set up for an ambush so they can get a sound bite or a clip on their iPhone. So that doesn’t benefit anyone they represent. We've encouraged them, for the time being, to do things that make more sense. Have telephone town halls, where you can reach 10,000 people in one call, go and engage small groups of your actual constituents by industry group or interest group or what have you; be available. Be among people. Listen and hear and have the dialogue, but do it in settings that are actually productive. Don't play along. Don't play George Soros’s game. That's our advice.
Washington Reporter:
When do you think that voters can expect to see more CRAs coming out of Congress?
Speaker Mike Johnson:
We'll have a steady stream; we went after the was it the ban on the gas stoves. We also have the Midnight Rules Relief Act and that’s Andy Biggs’s legislation. So that'll allow us to knock out a lot of them in one single vote. It'll be a much more efficient and effective way to roll back the ridiculous rules and regs that the Biden administration imposed on people.
Washington Reporter:
You come from an energy state. Trump was talking about drill, baby, drill. I'm curious about what that means for Louisiana specifically, and what else do you see as policies that can actually lower energy costs for Americans across the country?
Speaker Mike Johnson:
It's music to our ears. He's been saying that since he first got elected president, back in 2017. He said, ‘we want to restore America's energy dominance,’ and we love that line. I’ve got a tattoo of it on my arm. This is a really, really important thing for the economy and also for national security, because the opposite approach was taken by last administration. Biden declared war on oil and gas and actually shut down LNG exports to European allies. So they’ve got to go buy it from Vladimir Putin and fuel his war machine, it's just bad. So the president understands that the way we do it is we go to regulatory reform. We make the permitting process quicker, you open up more federal lands to exploration and production. The president has big plans to do all those things, and when you lower taxes on producers they can invest more, take more risk, and go find more of these resources that God has truly blessed our country with. So Anwar was a big project of the president, all of these things will effectively do exactly the opposite of what Democrats do, and everyone in America will see the results.
Washington Reporter:
Reconciliation aside, you've also been very effective at passing legislation like what Trump talked about with the Laken Riley Act, which is important policy and politically, it was very divisive for Democrats. What other issues are you expecting to be able to work on, to divide their caucus while also delivering on actually important priorities for the American people?
Speaker Mike Johnson:
Two come to mind, and they're forthcoming. We're going to pass the SAVE Act again, which is a very simple concept of ensuring that only American citizens vote in federal elections. And that's going to divide the Democrats, because that's a difficult one for them to vote against. We attached it to a CR last year, but we may put that out as a standalone, and I think we will. And then you've got the Police Act, where we're standing up for law enforcement. We’ve got a lot of votes that comport with common sense. President Trump keeps saying that that's the primary theme that comes through all of this: common sense. And we're going to put a lot of common sense legislation on issues the vast majority of the American people agree with but we'll see how the Democrats withstand that.
Washington Reporter:
You've got a very small majority right now. Where are you already chomping at the bit to get some people out on the other side, and where are you going to be already looking at prioritizing your efforts to keep your colleagues here?
Speaker Mike Johnson:
We're excited about it. We don't rest on our laurels. We didn't take any breaks at all. Right after the election, we already began working on 2026; there are only two times in 85 years that the president's party has picked up seats in the House, and the president almost always loses seats in that first two year midterm. In order to defy history, we've got to be laser focused on the mission. There are a couple of reasons we're going to we are going to defy history this time, I'm convinced of it. Number one, we had a demographic shift in the election this time; we had a record number of Hispanic, Latino voters and African American voters, black voters, we had Jewish voters, union workers, all these people who came into the party with this great anticipation. We have a once in a generation opportunity now to deliver for them and to demonstrate that our policies actually do lead to human flourishing. They're going to be in better shape now, individuals, families, communities and the like. So that is going to keep them in the tent. And then also the second big thing is the favorable landscape that we have. We have, as we sit here this morning, 13 House Democrats in districts that Trump won. We have 21 Democrats who are sitting in districts that he came within five points of winning. And, there are only three House Republicans in districts of Trump lost: Don Bacon, Mike Lawler, and Brian Fitzpatrick. So we have probably the most favorable field that is set for us that we've had in decades and we are going after those seats to flip them and I'm very confident that we are going to do that.
Washington Reporter:
I could talk with you all day, but you’re a busy man. Thanks so much for chatting, Speaker Johnson.