Speaker Johnson and House GOP leaders hold their weekly press briefing.
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00:00Oh my golly. Can I lower this just a bit? Look at this. Not too much. You can raise it. This
00:10is just fun. Good morning, everybody. Hope you guys are doing well. Question for you.
00:17What is anti-Semitism? I bet the American, any American can answer that question and
00:24they can tell you when they see it. But I'm curious about a college administrator. Does
00:29anti-Semitism belong on college campuses? Of course not. Do college administrators
00:35agree? Well, we'll find out tomorrow when three university presidents appear before
00:42the House Committee on Education and Workforce to answer just those questions. And I will
00:48cut right to the chase. If any of them can't denounce anti-Semitism or, more
00:57importantly, take action to protect their students, then they should be fired
01:03immediately. Remember, actions speak louder than words. The American people are
01:09watching, the students are watching, and the president is watching. As a member of
01:15the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, my colleagues and I will ensure
01:20that these colleges are being held accountable for their actions or lack thereof. Anti-Semitism
01:30in any form will just not be tolerated. And I thank President Trump and his work on this
01:38very crucial issue. Now, switching gears for our work this week, House Republicans continue to work to codify
01:47President Trump and the American people's agenda. We will codify President Trump's executive order renaming
01:54the Gulf of America. The American people are footing the bill to protect and secure the Gulf of America.
02:02It's only right that it's named appropriately. On Friday, we received the president's budget. It aims to root out wasteful spending,
02:09deliver historic saving, and protect essential programs, just like we'll be doing in our one big, beautiful bill.
02:24And lastly, but certainly not least, House Republicans celebrate National Small Business Week. It's fitting we celebrate
02:31Small Business Week amid amidst our work to prevent the largest tax hike in American history. Unfortunately,
02:40not a single Democrat has joined us in our efforts on this. They've already turned their backs on millions of
02:50workers and support shuttering thousands of small businesses that employ nearly half of the workforce. And here to speak
03:00on this is chairman of the Small Business Committee, our coach, Mr. Roger Williams.
03:09Thank you, Madam Chair. And this is going to be a great week for America. It's going to be a great week for small business.
03:14You know, small business represents 99 percent of our businesses in America are small businesses.
03:2050 percent of the payroll, 50 percent of the workforce is generated by Main Street America. And the American dream is
03:26living, living large right now. I will tell you what's ahead for us. We've got a great partnership between Senator Ernst and I
03:33and Administrator Loeffler. We're very closely together with the SBA, which is over purview of the Small Business Committee.
03:40But when you look at the opportunities that are out there for small business, small business is ready for the for the Trump tax cuts.
03:46When you talk about Trump tax cuts, you talk about less regulations. You talk about 100 percent expensing.
03:52Unbelievable opportunities ahead for Main Street America. So we will we will celebrate that this week.
03:59One of the things we've already done with Administrator Loeffler and Senator Ernst and myself is we've already raised the or we've filed to raise the $5 million loan max on manufacturing to $10 million.
04:15This is big. This is a big thing because now people can expand their business. They can get started in business. They can stay in business.
04:22So we've got a lot of great things happening. We should all be proud to live in this country. But also we got the greatest economy in the world.
04:29It's going to get nothing but better. And the American dream is living and breathing as we speak right now.
04:33It's an honor to be the chair of the Small Business Committee and work with these people behind me. God bless.
04:38Crypto's footing slips on the hill, as some reports read this morning. As a member of the most pro crypto Congress ever, I wholeheartedly reject that premise.
04:56I want to remind everyone listening that crypto is not right or left. It's not Republican or Democrat. It's the future and it's for everyone.
05:06In an increasingly digital world, America must step up as the leader in digital asset innovation and investment.
05:13President Trump vowed to make America the crypto capital of the world. And since day one, he's delivered by reversing Joe Biden and Gary Gensler's anti-crypto crusade.
05:24From signing a bill into law that repeals the Biden era IRS rule that chill defy innovation to signing executive orders that create a strategic reserve of crypto and prohibit the government.
05:37The I'm sorry, prohibit the establishment of a central bank digital currency. President Trump is positioning the United States as the world leader in digital assets.
05:47These are moves that can and should be celebrated by all of us as the most pro crypto pro innovation Congress ever elected.
05:57We are already taking bipartisan steps. I would argue nonpartisan steps to ensure digital asset policy champion champions decentralization and open permissionless and private innovation.
06:10This is the only viable path forward by originating the regulatory framework for crypto here in Congress.
06:17The future of digital assets will be determined by the American people and their representatives as it should be.
06:23The amount the moment to get this done is now and we need to get it done together.
06:30If we fail to provide clarity that protects innovators and consumers alike, the future of crypto and the opportunities it brings will belong to another nation.
06:40To deliver on President Trump's crypto promises, promises that individuals in both parties can get behind Congress must keep taking steps closer to getting a nonpartisan or you guys like to report bipartisan regulatory framework across the finish line and quickly.
06:59With that, I turn it over to our leader, Leader Scalise.
07:03Leader Scalise Thank you, Whip.
07:06Leader Scalise Thank you, Whip.
07:07Leader Scalise It was great to hear from our Chairman of the Small Business Committee, Roger Williams.
07:10Leader Scalise Nobody understands the value of small businesses.
07:13Leader Scalise The importance of promoting small businesses in America better than Roger and his chairman.
07:19Leader Scalise He has ushered in policies and bills through that committee to allow small businesses to thrive.
07:26Leader Scalise And if you look at the work we are doing with the one big beautiful bill, the reconciliation package.
07:32This is a bill that will grow more small businesses across America.
07:36It will create more jobs across America.
07:38It will create stability.
07:40If you think about the idea that if Congress were to take no action this year,
07:44there would be a $4.5 trillion tax increase on American families.
07:49Over 95% of Americans would see a tax increase.
07:54And yet every Democrat in Washington will be voting no on that package
07:58and would like to see every family pay more in taxes.
08:02There are so many other provisions that are so critical to getting our economy back on track,
08:08to lowering inflation, to lowering the cost of things at the grocery store,
08:12at the gas pump that are in this bill.
08:15And we are still moving through.
08:17Last week, I applaud seven committees in Congress, did their work, finished,
08:22completely finished their work in reconciliation here in the House.
08:27Today, the Natural Resources Committee will take up their portion of the bill.
08:31That will be eight committees out of 11 that will already be done with all of their work this week.
08:36And then next week, the final three committees, Agriculture, Energy and Commerce, and Ways and Means,
08:41will take up and finish their work to get this big, beautiful bill,
08:46not only through the House process, but over to the Senate.
08:49The Speaker and I met with Jason Smith and Brett Guthrie last week in the White House with President Trump
08:55to go through some of the final details that we are getting agreement on.
08:59And we've been working incredibly closely with the White House and with the Senate every step of the way
09:05because this bill is critically important to American families.
09:09This bill is a big piece of carrying through that Trump agenda, the mandate that the American people gave us
09:16when they elected not just Donald Trump in the White House, but a Republican House and a Republican Senate
09:21to go deliver for the families who have been struggling for way too long.
09:26We do that with this one big, beautiful bill.
09:28Everything from tax stability and the tax code so that nobody sees a tax increase,
09:35bringing trillions of dollars of private investment back into the economy,
09:39opening up more energy production in America to reverse some of the damage Joe Biden did.
09:45Everywhere from ANWR in Alaska, some of the great work that Congressman Begich just came into Congress,
09:52vowing to fight for the citizens of Alaska and open up more areas for production there.
09:57That's going to be in this bill, all the way down to the Gulf of America,
10:00opening up more areas for lease sales and production in the Gulf as well.
10:05All of those things are going to be in the bill.
10:07More defense funding, more border security, giving protection and technology to our Border Patrol agents.
10:15All of that is in the bill too.
10:16Confronting the debt ceiling, dealing with rules and regulatory reform, all in this powerful bill.
10:23What the Education and Workforce Committee did to protect students from higher student debt.
10:29We actually protect students so that they're not saddled with high student loans when they graduate from college.
10:35That's in this bill as well.
10:37Standing up and holding accountable universities that were failing kids for so many years,
10:43saddling them with $200,000, $300,000 in debt without the ability to pay it back.
10:49So many good provisions.
10:51We're going to be bringing that bill to the floor once it's all finished next week.
10:55And then we compile it in Budget Committee and bring it as one big, beautiful bill to the House floor
10:59and then pass it on to the Senate so that they can continue this work.
11:03And the man leading that charge in the House is our Speaker, Mike Johnson.
11:10Good morning, everybody.
11:11Great to see you all.
11:12It's a great day on the Hill.
11:13We're very encouraged and even excited this morning about where we are and everything.
11:20President Trump, after the inauguration, and Republicans have taken our job very seriously.
11:26We haven't wasted a moment.
11:27We all celebrated the first 100 days of the Trump administration and all the extraordinary things
11:31that have been accomplished in such a short period of time.
11:35And we've been working around the clock to codify so much of what President Trump has been doing.
11:41I think there's 143 executive orders that have been issued thus far.
11:45And we're working around the clock to make sure that we put these into statutory law so
11:52that it can't be reversed and erased by an upcoming administration.
11:55For some reason, the media acts like that this effort is somehow a negative thing.
11:59It's not at all.
12:00Anybody who says that, they just fundamentally misunderstand the relationship between congressional Republicans
12:06and President Trump and his administration.
12:08We all ran on the same America First agenda.
12:12Secure the border.
12:13Cut taxes for working families.
12:16Revive American energy production.
12:18Strengthen our standing on the world stage and bring back common sense.
12:22Those are sort of the common themes of all these executive orders and the action the administration has taken.
12:27And this agenda, remember, was resoundingly endorsed by 77 million Americans who voted in the popular vote for the president
12:36and almost as many for House Republicans.
12:38We set a record for that.
12:39It's the most diverse and expansive coalition we've seen in modern history.
12:44A real and true demographic shift.
12:46And the reason people voted that way is that they had this sort of hopeful anticipation
12:50that the president and Republicans in Congress would do exactly what we are doing right now.
12:55And we are fulfilling that promise.
12:58We already have the formula for prosperity and security.
13:01And that's the thing about President Trump.
13:03It's not an unknown entity.
13:04As we've all recounted many times, he's done it once, he'll do it again.
13:08We plan to work together to enshrine the agenda and the law
13:11and make sure we have a roaring American economy and stability and security and prosperity and strength again.
13:18From day one, President Trump has used his executive authority to reverse
13:21also the devastating policies of the last administration.
13:24There was a lot of that to be done.
13:26But as the previous administration made it painfully clear,
13:28executive orders can be undone and overwritten.
13:31And that's why we have to move it through the legislative process.
13:34And we are.
13:35Here's a few key examples, okay, of what we've already voted to codify in terms of the executive orders.
13:41The president's election security executive order through the SAVE Act.
13:45That's what we voted on and got that done in the House.
13:47His executive order banning men from women's sports.
13:51We did that through the Women and Girls in Sports Act.
13:53His sanctions on the ICC.
13:55We did that through our illegitimate court counteraction act to support our ally Israel.
14:00And his forest management executive order through Fix Our Forest Act.
14:05Some of the things we've done so far.
14:06Now, this week we'll add another one to the list.
14:10We're going to pass Marjorie Taylor Greene's bill to permanently rename the Gulf of Mexico, the Gulf of America.
14:16And then we're going to codify dozens more of President Trump's budget-related executive orders,
14:21spending-related executive orders through the budget reconciliation process.
14:25Let me give you just a quick word on that, and then we'll take some questions.
14:28As Leader Scalise just recounted, we're really excited.
14:32We're very encouraged this morning.
14:33I mean, I am so thankful to have such a team that's worked so hard.
14:38I began the House Republican conference meeting this morning with all the House Republicans
14:41by congratulating and thanking all of our committee chairs.
14:45I mean, they worked so hard around the clock.
14:47And we've been doing this for almost a year, as we've said many times in here.
14:50And all the committee members who were so disciplined in getting the work done,
14:54I mean, they had 10-, 12-hour hearings in some of these committees, some even longer.
14:58And they got the product done and through the process.
15:01So by the end of this week, we'll have eight of the 11 committees of jurisdiction will have done their work.
15:06And then next week, we will have Ways and Means, Energy and Commerce, and Ag.
15:12And some of you reported, or some of your outlets reported, anyway, over the weekend,
15:16that this was somehow a snag in the process,
15:19that those three committees were going next week instead of this week.
15:21But as I've explained to a few of you individually, I'll just say you're together in the room,
15:27we went last Thursday to the White House, as the leader mentioned.
15:31Steve Scalise and I and Chairman Guthrie and Chairman Smith met in the White House with the President
15:37and his whole team on point.
15:39We had Secretary Besant there from Treasury.
15:42We had Russ Vogt from Office of Management and Budget.
15:45We had his whole Ledge Affairs team and Susie Wiles, the Chief of Staff,
15:49and Stephen Miller and the whole group.
15:52And the intention was to work through some of the final details.
15:55But we realized that we were still awaiting some key numbers on calculations on some of the provisions with tax
16:00and some of the other details.
16:02And it just made sense for us to push pause for a week to make sure that we do this right.
16:07We didn't want to move this quickly, speed for the sake of speed.
16:10We want to get it right.
16:11And so everybody in the room agreed that it made sense for us to do that.
16:15And so we pushed those three committees that are going next week just off another week.
16:20So we can make sure that we have the right equilibrium point on all the key issues.
16:24And I'm absolutely convinced we're going to do that, and I'm excited about it.
16:27So we'll stay on track.
16:29They'll do that next week.
16:30And by the end of the week, as Steve said, Leader Scalise said, we'll have our 11 committees.
16:36We'll send them by the end of next week to the budget committee.
16:41And Chairman Arrington then and his team will take that and merge it all together,
16:45and we'll have the one big, beautiful bill ready to go.
16:47We can pass that by Memorial Day.
16:49That was our original time frame.
16:50And some of the people in this room balked and thought that would be impossible.
16:54But stop doubting us.
16:55We're going to get this job done, okay?
16:57I'll just make this point.
16:59I made it on TV over the weekend, and I want to say it again.
17:01The House and Senate Republicans are utilizing the budget reconciliation process primarily
17:07because Leader Schumer in the Senate, Leader Jeffries in the House, and their Democrat colleagues
17:12refuse to engage in anything, no matter how meritorious, even to improve the lives of their
17:18constituents if it means that President Trump will somehow be credited with a win.
17:22I mean, it's really sad, but that's the fact.
17:24They'd rather put on performative stunts and host these activist town halls and all this
17:29other nonsense than just work with us to bring costs down and make communities safer for
17:34their constituents.
17:35Just think about how the American people feel about these issues.
17:39Consider this.
17:39Secure the border, right?
17:41Securing the border is an 80-20 issue in America.
17:44Deporting illegal aliens, more than 50% of American people believe that every single illegal
17:50alien should be deported, okay?
17:51And yet Democrats, much less the violent criminals, which the administration has taken on in earnest,
17:57but in spite of those numbers, okay, the Democrats are taking trips to Central America to bring
18:03back violent illegal aliens back to the country.
18:06It's madness.
18:09Strengthening Medicaid for Americans who need it by eliminating things like fraud, waste,
18:13and abuse, which is a huge problem in the program, including removing illegal aliens.
18:18If you add all that together, 66% of the American people think that that's a very important idea.
18:23We need to improve and shore up and strengthen the program so that it can be there for the
18:28people who desperately need and deserve it.
18:31And Democrats, what are they doing?
18:33They're lying about what we're doing with Medicaid.
18:35So much so that we've gotten them to pull down their advertising because they were literally
18:40breaking the law.
18:41We sent cease and desist letters and they had to take it down.
18:44Cutting taxes for working families and small businesses.
18:47What American doesn't want to pay fewer taxes to the government?
18:50There may be a few, but I haven't found them.
18:53Especially on matters like the overtime that they work, their tipped wages and Social Security.
18:59Big promises for the president.
19:01We're going to deliver that.
19:02But it turns out congressional Democrats apparently want Americans to pay more.
19:06They're adamantly against all those things I just named.
19:09They're against keeping taxes low.
19:11And when they oppose the reconciliation bill, when they oppose the solution to this, to extending
19:16the tax cuts, they are actually advocating for the largest tax increase in U.S. history.
19:20End of sentence.
19:22Unleashing American energy, lowering input costs, creating new jobs.
19:25Democrats want a radical Green New Deal policy extension.
19:28They don't want these common sense solutions and all the above policies like we are bringing
19:34and that the American people demand and deserve.
19:36I could go on and on and on.
19:37You get the point.
19:38This is what we're endeavoring to do through our budget reconciliation process.
19:41And these are the policies we're fighting every day to deliver because these are the
19:45ones the American people support.
19:47And they need and they deserve.
19:49When Democrats had a trifecta in 2021, they used a budget reconciliation process.
19:53But you know what they did?
19:54They used it to stimulate the economy.
19:56What did that mean?
19:57Well, trillions in new spending and tax hikes and the Green New Deal giveaways.
20:01We can't do that.
20:02It's not sustainable.
20:03So we're going to reverse it.
20:05And guess what happened when they did that?
20:06We had runaway inflation making the cost of living for everyday Americans unbearable.
20:11Contrast that with what we're doing.
20:13What Republicans are working on right now, what we're delivering through the committees
20:16and soon through the whole House, lower taxes, decreased regulation, safer streets, keeping
20:23money, more of your money that you earn in your own pocket.
20:27We'll take that to the people every single day.
20:29And they'll be for us.
20:30And as the House works to finish budget reconciliation over the next few weeks, we'll continue to shine
20:34a light on the do-nothing Democrats who would rather oppose President Trump's popular agenda
20:38than work for the needs of their own constituents.
20:40And I just think it's shameful.
20:42With that, I'll take a few questions.
20:44Olivia.
20:45Yeah.
20:45As you head into the final sort of stretch for reconciliation, members, centrists, conservatives
20:51seem to have a very different expectation of what the final product is going to look like.
20:55Have you made assurances?
20:56Have you made promises that you can't keep to different members as this process begins
21:01to wrap?
21:01No, I don't make promises I can't keep.
21:04This is a consensus-building operation, as you know, and it's member-driven, bottom-up.
21:08And every single member of the conference has had many opportunities and has more this
21:12week to weigh in and let their preferences be known.
21:15This is about balancing preferences.
21:17I mean, no one's going to be surprised.
21:19Everybody knows where the touch points are on the final details of the final analysis.
21:24And we've been working really hard to take all the input and find that kind of equilibrium
21:28point where everybody is at least satisfied.
21:31Some people are not going to be elated by every provision of the bill.
21:34It's impossible.
21:35The bill is one big, beautiful bill.
21:37It's a big piece of legislation.
21:38There's a lot in it.
21:39So there's always going to be things page by page.
21:41Somebody can go through a large bill and find things that they would have preferred to
21:46be handled another way.
21:48But in its totality, this is going to be the most important, most consequential legislation
21:53that we'll ever be involved in in our lifetimes and arguably one of the biggest in the history
21:56of Congress.
21:57And so I think at the end of the day, we'll get that consensus.
21:59And, you know, there may be some grumbling about certain provisions, but as the whip said
22:04so aptly this morning in the conference meeting, he said, you've got to focus on the totality
22:09of the bill and not just individual details.
22:12But my job is to work out those details.
22:14And look, I'm very confident that we're going to get to that point by the end of this week
22:17and we'll move this thing forward.
22:19So, yeah.
22:20Second bill.
22:22Last week, the House passed three CRA resolutions terminating California vehicle emissions rules,
22:27but Senate Majority Leader John Thune has yet to make a decision to take up those resolutions
22:31or not.
22:32How confident are you that congressional Republicans can get these resolutions to the president's
22:37desk?
22:37I've got a lot of confidence in Leader Thune.
22:39We work together very closely, almost daily, and he's managing a small margin as I am.
22:45Both of us now have three votes to spare.
22:46It's an embarrassment of riches, you know.
22:48So he's got to do consensus building on it as well.
22:51I suspect every Republican's for that.
22:53But, of course, he's got to get about seven Democrats to come along on everything, and
22:57that's the tough part.
22:59And, you know, Leader Schumer over there and the Democrats have made very clear they don't
23:03have much intention of getting anything done at all.
23:05They just want to stop all the progress.
23:06And I know a lot of Californians that are very, very excited, very happy that we took that
23:12big step, and I hope the Senate can get it done.
23:13But I don't know what their time frame is.
23:15Speaker Johnson, how do you use reconciliation to remove illegal immigrants from Medicaid,
23:20and how do you confidently estimate the savings from that?
23:23Well, it's not my estimation.
23:25I mean, these numbers come from the CBO and very credible sources.
23:28We have a pretty accurate count, we think, of how many are on the rolls in some of these
23:32states.
23:33And now we have a tabulation of what it will save the taxpayers to kick them off.
23:37And as I mentioned, I mean, public polling is squarely on our side on this.
23:40I mean, you cannot have an open doormat.
23:43You can't have an open border.
23:44Thankfully, President Trump has closed it now.
23:46But for four years, it was wide open.
23:48And we sent the message to everybody around the world, come here, and you can get on the
23:51taxpayer's wagon.
23:53You know, and that's just not, it's not right.
23:55It's not lawful.
23:56It's not morally correct.
23:57And we're going to fix it in reconciliation.
24:00So stay tuned.
24:01There'll be a lot of savings for the American people, and I think it'll be wildly popular
24:03when we get it done.
24:04Yeah, back.
24:05Third round.
24:05Yeah.
24:05So some of your colleagues have suggested this week that D.C. District Judge James
24:09Boesberg is being assigned a disproportionate number of, quote, high-profile cases related
24:14to the Trump administration.
24:15What is your take on that?
24:17Is it the view of House Republicans that the D.C. Federal Court isn't following judicial
24:22conference policy for random assignment on cases?
24:24I, that's the first I've heard of the allegation, to be honest.
24:28I mean, I was a federal court litigator, and I don't have any evidence that they're, you
24:33know, it's supposed to be a random drawing, and so far as I know, that's what's happening.
24:36I mean, we do have real concern about that individual judge and some of the decisions
24:40he's made.
24:41But look, I mentioned this to some colleagues this morning.
24:44When I used to litigate cases, I would run into activist judges on occasion, but I never
24:49walked out of the courthouse thinking that I would have the ability to impeach them.
24:53I just thought, I need to get this to the appellate court as soon as possible to get
24:55them overturned, and we had a great success rate in that.
24:58Activist judges need to be addressed, and we passed the No Rogue Rulings Act a few weeks
25:02ago, Darrell Isis bill, that would really solve that problem in a silver bullet.
25:06That's another thing we really hope the Senate can move.
25:08It shouldn't be a partisan issue.
25:09I mean, everybody, Republicans and Democrats, should want fair judges.
25:13I mean, that's, our system of equal justice depends upon that, and it's gotten out of control.
25:18So I don't know.
25:19There are lots of allegations and concerns about it, but I haven't seen any proof of that.
25:22So, yeah, go ahead.
25:23You were asked about the Senate, what you expect the Senate to do with your reconciliation
25:29bill in the conference today.
25:30Will they just change a bunch of this stuff?
25:33And I think there's a concern about that from a lot of your members.
25:36And I can give you a sense.
25:37I mean, how much, you talk about your coordination with Boone.
25:41How much do you think, or how much do you expect that the Senate will not, will want
25:45to put its own imprint on this thing?
25:47Well, look, we've got some strong leaders in the Senate.
25:50They're all friends and colleagues of ours.
25:52We truly regard this as one team.
25:54I know that's an innovation in Washington.
25:56I know the House and Senate are supposed to be fighting each other all the time.
25:58But that's not the game we're playing.
26:00And I've been very deliberate, and Leader Thune has as well, to have no daylight between
26:05the two chambers.
26:06So there shouldn't be any big surprises.
26:08I mean, they're following very closely what we're doing and vice versa.
26:11But the lion's share of the work has been done in the House, not by virtue of pride
26:14of authorship or because there's a competition between the two chambers, but just because
26:18that's the way the calendar fell.
26:19Remember, we started working on this in March of last year, and the Senate was going through
26:23lots of other things during that time period.
26:26They had a change in their leadership because Leader McConnell stepped down.
26:28They had a lot of turnover there.
26:31And they had to do, at the beginning of the first 100 days, they had to, of course, do
26:34all the confirmations of the administration.
26:35And they did it in record time, to their great credit.
26:40But by virtue of that calendar, it meant that the House did a ton of the work.
26:44I mean, we're probably eight months ahead of the Senate by some measures in all the deliberations
26:48and the detailed work.
26:49So that, by necessity, means that we'll drive the initial product and send it over.
26:55And that's really the way the system is supposed to work anyway on a budget reconciliation.
26:59So we're going to be very proud of the product we send over there.
27:02I don't expect that it will take much modification.
27:04I hope that there's very little at all and that we can have an agreement.
27:08But the difference now and in years past, perhaps, is that our colleagues over there
27:13know exactly what we're doing.
27:15We're in careful, close communication and with the White House team as well.
27:19So we're not sending over some package that they'll receive blindly and not know what's
27:23in it.
27:24Everybody knows what we're working on and why and the discussions we're having and we're
27:28keeping them abreast of all of it.
27:30And if there are individual senators who have a problem, I'm apt to reach out to them myself
27:34and committee chairs are as well.
27:35There's been very close coordination between the committee chairs on the matching jurisdictions
27:39on each side.
27:40So, look, I think it's going to make the process work really well in the end.
27:43That's my expectation.
27:44Back row.
27:45Back row.
27:45I want to follow up on your comments about Congressman Issa's bill on judges.
27:50So are judicial impeachments off the table for the rest of this Congress?
27:55No.
27:55Look, impeachments are never off the table if it's merited.
27:58But in our system, we've had 15 federal judges impeached in the entire history of the country.
28:03I mean, there may be some that I feel merit that, but you've got to get the votes for it,
28:07right?
28:08And it's a very high burden, and frankly, the bar is high crimes and misdemeanors.
28:12I mean, the last federal judge that was impeached, I think, was caught, like, you know, taking
28:16cash in an envelope.
28:18You know, it's like, it's got to be a pretty brazen offense, a real open crime that everybody
28:24could agree to.
28:24So short of that, if we don't have the votes, and by the way, even if we could get an impeachment
28:28article through the House on a federal judge, it's unlikely that they would be tried and
28:33convicted in the Senate on that with the divided number we have.
28:36So short of that, what can we do?
28:39I mean, we've done everything within our power to solve that problem.
28:42And remember the stats.
28:43I think it's 67% of all national injunctions issued against a president in the last 100
28:48years were against one president, and his name is Donald J. Trump.
28:5290% of those were from openly, you know, Democrat-appointed judges that many would regard as this other
28:58judge, as activists, or people venue shop to get in their courts.
29:01We all know it's a real problem.
29:03It's not what the Founding Fathers intended.
29:04So what can we do using our power in the House?
29:07Darrell Isis' appeal is a great response.
29:09The No Rogue Rulings Act would prohibit a single individual judge from issuing a nationwide
29:13injunction like that to stop the entire policy of an administration.
29:17I think that is a very common sense standard and one that would kind of get back to the
29:22original intent and eliminate the ability of just one activist to just stop everything.
29:27And it's very reasonable legislation.
29:30We passed it through the House.
29:31We sent it to the Senate with every expectation that they should be able to take that up.
29:35And I certainly hope they can because, again, it shouldn't be a partisan issue.
29:38It should be something that every American agrees with.
29:41We've got to restore faith in our system of justice.
29:44And it was eroded over the last four years on the Biden administration for all the reasons
29:47we know and have recounted here many times.
29:49And it falls to us to make sure that people can believe.
29:52Lady Justice has a blindfold for a reason, right?
29:54That the symbol is that she, it's equal justice under law.
29:58It's chiseled into the marble above the Supreme Court's entrance when you walk in.
30:01We have to restore that.
30:02If you don't have the people's faith in a system of justice and fair judges, then you
30:06don't have anything in a republic.
30:07And that's why this is so important.
30:08We'll keep advancing it.
30:09Thanks so much for the time.
30:10So if you go back to 2017, after the baseball shooting, the FBI had brought in the members
30:33of the team.
30:34Roger Williams was one of those members who was part of that briefing.
30:38And at that meeting, they went through some of the information.
30:44Some of it was classified.
30:45Some of it wasn't.
30:46But they ultimately let us know what their conclusion was.
30:50And that's when they said it was classified as suicide by cop.
30:55And I'll tell you, I was offended.
30:57I think all of us there were highly offended that that was the conclusion that the FBI in
31:042017 came to because it wasn't what happened on the baseball field.
31:08He went there with the intention of killing all of us on the baseball field.
31:13And he had a list in his pocket of other Republicans he wanted to kill.
31:16It was very politically motivated.
31:18And it was clear they suppressed a lot of facts.
31:21And what the FBI report that Kash Patel's FBI came out with today shows, they suppressed
31:28factual evidence to reach a different conclusion than what the facts led to show.
31:35Suicide by cop was not the conclusion.
31:37They ultimately changed it to domestic terrorism.
31:40And I applaud the new FBI for making that change in the justification.
31:45But they also revealed some of the other facts that were suppressed.
31:50The fact that it was politically motivated, even though they had some of that factual evidence,
31:56they hid that because they didn't want to to make it look like it was politically motivated.
32:03You know, I mean, look, the guy went there and not only tried to kill all of us.
32:07I had two Capitol Police officers with me on my detail.
32:10He tried to kill both of them.
32:12Suicide by cop is not when you try to kill everybody around, including the cops.
32:17And by the way, he didn't even know they were cops because they were dressed in plain clothes.
32:22And he had every intention of carrying out a politically motivated message.
32:27He wrote about it and they had that evidence and they suppressed it.
32:31So it was very disappointing.
32:32We walked out of the meeting that day because we were so infuriated that that was their conclusion.
32:39I'm glad that Kash Patel is getting the FBI back to a fact based organization where they follow the evidence,
32:46not try to have a predisclosed conclusion, but where they actually look at the facts and make their conclusion based on the evidence.
32:54That's what he's done with this new report.
32:57And I think it's important that they got it right.
33:00It's also important that they find out who the people were that suppressed evidence for a political motivated reason.
33:07Do you believe that where do you believe that political motivation came from?
33:12I don't know.
33:13You know, we saw that some of those agencies were were unfortunately being used for political purposes to go after political enemies,
33:22to try to carry out political vendettas.
33:25It's not why they're there, regardless of, you know, in the Gabby Gifford shooting.
33:31All of us, I was a member, a fairly new member of Congress at the time.
33:35And, you know, we were devastated by that attempt on Gabby's life.
33:40But we also wanted to know what happened.
33:43We just wanted to know the facts.
33:44And if it led this direction or that direction, it didn't, it really shouldn't have mattered to the people going out to find the facts.
33:53The intelligence agencies should have been just looking for the facts, not trying to have their own conclusion confirmed by suppressing evidence.
34:02And yet that's what they did.