Posted on 11/14/2024 7:22:10 AM PST by RoosterRedux
Transcript:
Sean: Donald Trump was on Capitol Hill today meeting with House Republicans, who are now only one seat away from reaching that magic number of 218. It's expected they will have 222 at the end of the day, officially retaining control of the chamber. After a big endorsement from Donald Trump, House Republicans then unanimously backed Mike Johnson to remain as Speaker of the House in January. He joins us now.
Mr. Speaker, thank you, we appreciate it. So, the polls were showing a 70-80% chance he would lose the majority. That did not happen. You have a majority, albeit a small majority, but a bigger problem is that you will fairly soon be losing -- you already lost Matt Gaetz because he resigned today. But how do you handle that so that at no point does control of the House get into the hands of the Democrats?
Speaker: Yeah, it's a great problem to have. We have an embarrassment of riches, lots of talented people who are very attuned to the America First agenda and who can serve the country well in other capacities. But I've told President Trump, enough already, give me some relief. I have to maintain this majority.
He understands it; we've been talking hourly almost every day. I think we will be settled. The numbers we projected, I think, will be the reality, and we will have the majority. I think these seats, Matt's, for example—his resignation today was to help us because it starts the clock. Under Florida state law, it's about an eight-week process to fill the seat. So if we do this quickly—and I've already called Governor DeSantis to ask them to kick-start this thing—we could have the seat filled by January third when the new Congress begins. That would be one seat replaced almost immediately.
Sean: What a beneficial...
Speaker: Deep red district.
Sean: Would it be beneficial if Florida did the same thing?
Speaker: I'm going to talk about it with him tonight. The timing matters. We need to stagger these things. He's going to fill a very important position for the President in the country, and we don't want to delay that. He doesn't have to be appointed by the Senate, his position. We will be able to figure that out. I know Governor DeSantis will be very busy working on all of these matters and the one you discussed in the previous segment—filling the Senate seats. He will be an active participant, and we will get this done.
We are assured to have Republicans reelected, and we will work with the smaller majority for the amount of time we have to, but we are going to be very aggressive. We are going to move the America First agenda for the American people beginning on day one. We have all this work stacked up, and we are ready to go.
Sean: Let's talk a little bit about New York. How does the process work there?
Speaker: A similar situation under New York state law. The governor there can't play games with this; it's about an 80-day process, roughly. Elise Stefanik comes from a red state. County chairs are putting together their nominee. President Trump has committed he will go up and do a rally. We will get this job done. She will do an extraordinary job as the ambassador. She's Harvard-educated, really smart, very sharp, and unflappable, and she will advance America's agenda at the U.N. again. That's a really important position, so I'm delighted she got it.
Sean: It almost sounds like it would be better if she were to resign sooner rather than later also. Let me ask, tell us first about the meeting with President Trump today, where he endorsed you, and have you had any conversation with the new Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who was very supportive of the Trump agenda? Do you believe that the House, the Senate, and the President are all going to be on the same page? Because in my mind, you have between 18 and 24 months to get a lot of this agenda through.
Speaker: You are exactly right. The atmosphere on the Hill is one of euphoria. The Republican Party is united and energized like I've never seen it. We had a great time with President Trump this morning. He came and visited with the House Republican Conference and gave a ringing endorsement of me and our leadership team, and that’s very helpful. The unity aspect of this is very important because we have to work together.
I did call Leader Thune to congratulate him on his victory. We talked for a short period of time about the agenda going forward and how we have to do this. We need the House Republicans and Senate Republicans to be in lockstep, and we will be. He's excited about that and committed to the America First agenda. We laughed about how our home cities and counties—his county, my parish—voted overwhelmingly for President Trump in a landslide. Our people, and all the American people, really desperately want, need, and deserve this, and we are going to deliver.
Sean: I'm encouraged by his words and everyone else's, but I am a trust-but-verify guy, and I want to see that agenda adopted and adopted soon.
“He doesn’t have to be appointed by the Senate, his position.”
I’ve seen him grill admin wogs from Biden. I want him there. If his ‘file’ is so terrible, they’d have pulled him already.
Go Get’em Matt.
The transcript garbled the comment made by Hannity asking if it would be beneficial if Mike Waltz did the same thing? That’s what Speaker Johnson was talking about re: Senate “appointment.” (s/b confirm, of course)
NLRB vs Canning. SCOTUS 2014.
They try this and it goes to the SCOTUS.
Much as I’d like to see Gaetz as AG.
Elise Stefanik comes from a red state.
I think Johnson meant county. Right?
Yes, District to be more precise. Leans Red.
Weird, how he said ‘state’.
Thx.
he was talking about Mike Waltz
Yep. You know how it is when people misspeak in interviews. I saw Johnson commit several gaffs in this interview, but they were minor.
Johnson looked really tired, in an interview on Newsmax, last night.
Hope he’s doing okay.
We need a Speaker who can keep up with Pres Trump and all of the winning!
Trump just loves every minute of it. He's having a ball.
Matt Gaetz made a RIGHTEOUS MOVE by resigning effective immediately. That will enable Governor DeSantis to schedule a special election early enough to have Gaetz’ replacement (a near certainty to be a Republican) sworn in early January. Props to Congressman Gaetz!👏👏
Thanks for the clarification! I was wondering why he said that. :)
It also means he’s convinced he will get the position. And this may be why Trump said that whoever leads the Senate needs to be on-board with recess appointments so that Trump’s picks can get in right away. I wanted Scott for Senate leader but I hope what Johnson says is correct, and Thune in on-board to get this show on the road.
Hilarious to read this nonsense, when - if you've seen 'House of Cards' - or worked on the Hill (as I did during Newt's reign), you know very well that was a nasty conversation filled with veiled threats and gamesmanship.
amen. I am cautiously quite hopeful! They DO all need to be unified in the America First movement and let’s get this party started.
The House needs to approve the Senate recess, and the Senate needs to be in actual recess, not merely functionally in recess. Specifically, the court ruled that recess can include “intra-session” recesses.
The Republicans controlled the Senate and had deliberately kept the Senate in session; Obama tried to argue that the appointments were valid because the Senate was functionally in recess, even if the Republican leadership of the Senate hadn’t declared itself to be in recess.
What Gaetz needs is enough time to ensure the replacement of Biden’s Justice Department. He’ll have that. And Ed Whalen’s notions aside, I’m pretty sure the conservative SCOTUS judges would be OK with the notion that this means Trump gets his own pick UNTIL the Senate confirms a replacement.
Until Roosevelt had massive super-majorities in both Houses in the mid-1930s, it was normal for Congress to convene for a few days in March to ratify the election, and then recessing for many months. For several decades afterwards, Congress remained pretty much perpetually in session, until the 1970s, when Congress began taking unofficial recesses for work in their districts, supposedly finding that the perma-sessions made them unresponsive to their districts. But they legally remained in session; SCOTUS found that they were in session as long as they SAID they were in session. SCOTUS blessed the notion of remaining in session, even if it’s only a legal fiction.
Adjuorning immediately after the inauguration of the President, then, is a return to normal and an end to the legal fiction. failure to reject Gaetz’s appointment can probably even be reasonably be interpreted as acquiescence to it. I’m not so sure of this, but I’d guess that the only way to be rid of Gaetz would be to force a discharge petition and reject his nomination, at which time the #2 official would become acting AG.
Better idea. And it’s neither constitutional nor unconstitutional.
Kick California to hell out of the union.
All the New England states also.
Get rid of them.
Want to solve the problem like everyone claims? There you are.
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