Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Now the governing can begin,
Tim and Carroll, we got through the formalities, he can
swear in the members now listen.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
He's got a feel relief, no doubt about it. But
Joe Matthew, I always wonder about politically, you know how
this looks better that it didn't go to a second
round or a third round. Nobody would argue that, but
that he didn't get it easily without having to have
some negotiating going on. What are the implications potentially of that,
or do we start governing next week and everybody forgets
about it.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Anybody we'll forget about any of this. Let's remember he
will have a majority if Donald Trump gets the members
he requested to join his administration, a majority of one.
So when you see Mike Johnson talking to Hakeim Jeffreys
on the floor there, rest assured. They're going to have
to work together to make anything happen. The next step,
of course, once we get through this swearing in the membership,
(00:53):
they're going to have to craft out a plan an
agenda that will include borer security and extending the Trump
tax cuts. They're going to have to avoid a government shutdown.
They're going to have to deal with raising the debt ceiling.
Doing all of that with a majority of one is
going to be very complicated for Mike Johnson, who is
now making his way toward the speaker's rostrum so he
can reclaim the gavel. A lot of happy folks here,
(01:15):
But to your point, I think, Carol, the hard part
actually starts now.
Speaker 4 (01:18):
Did this vote today send any sort of message about
the power of Donald Trump. Mike Johnson was backed is
backed by Donald Trump, but not everybody in the party
fell in line today.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Donald Trump and Elon musked him. They both late in
the game endorsed Mike Johnson. We can argue that it
might have helped him actually get this done on the
first round, remembering that this had to happen today for
the vote certification on Monday, the sixth of January, right,
this is the next January sixth we're walking up on here.
You need to have a Congress to do that. That's
(01:54):
a joint session where that takes place in the very
chamber that we're looking at now, and you'll see Kamala
Harris preside over that vote certification. That was a point
of leverage that Kevin McCarthy didn't have, that even Mike
Johnson didn't have the last time around. And I suspect
that Donald Trump was involved in those conversations. Today we
saw Nancy Mace hand her cell phone over to Ralph
Norman at one point. I wonder who was on the
(02:15):
line there and whether that was a Florida area code.
That's the way this thing takes place now. That's the
way it's done now, and what would normally be kind
of a formality, you have to grind the gears a
little bit when you have so few people on your
side in this Republican conference.
Speaker 2 (02:28):
I gotta say, Joe, I want to go back to
something earlier you said, and it's something that we have
many conversations with folks around this table, investment experts who
are wondering exactly what a Trump White House's second Trump
White House ultimately gets done. You talk about this slim
majority that will be there on the House and the
work that Mike Johnson will have to do to really
reach across the aisle. It does it is indicative of
(02:50):
maybe not everything, or not to the extremes in terms
of the policies we heard from Donald Trump on the
campaign trail ultimately get carried out.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
Well, that's true.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
I mean, remember, of course you've got a Republican House,
a Republican Senate, and a Republican White House. If it's
ever going to happen, it's now. But yes, the real
argument will likely fall along the lines of this tax
code reform. It's not just as simple anymore, right as
extending the Trump tax cuts. You have to add no
taxes on tips, no tax on overtime, no tax on
(03:22):
Social Security, mortgage interest, there were so many others involving
auto loans and things that. Never mind salt. We haven't
mentioned salt yet. Can you get all of that into
one bill? That's a tall order. So when you look
at promises made on the campaign trail, you have to
get into the granular and whether that's in fact possible.
Here we're looking at this live shop by the way
of Chip Roy in the back of the chamber, along
(03:45):
with some of his fellow members of the Freedom Caucus,
who were, you know, the troublemakers if you will, in
this case for Mike Johnson, even though he closed the
deal on round one. But what we're going to see
next is the speaker in the rostrum where he'll be
introduced by Haakim Jeffries and handed the gavel.
Speaker 3 (04:00):
And this is the moment that they wanted, right.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
They've got their family members, their kids are with them
in some cases today this is supposed to be a big,
raw raw photo op for the conference and they'll get
to that eventually once we get by the way back
to Washington and back to governing in a week or two.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
It's also the confirmation.
Speaker 1 (04:15):
Hearings that need to take place for Donald Trump's team,
and those are not going to go very easily for
the likes of Pete hag Seth, Tulsea Gabbard, RFK Junior.
So before we even get to writing legislation, Carol, there
are going to be some bumps on the road for
this Republican majority.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
Is Thomas Massey one of those bumps on the road, Well.
Speaker 1 (04:33):
Boy, he sure was today, although you know everyone saw
it coming, so I feel like they just kind of
factored him out. He's made very clear that he's not
about to change his vote for Mike Johnson no matter
what he is promised. So I think it's some of
the other members that Chip Roys, Marjorie Taylor Green was
on the side of Mike Johnson in this case, Andy Biggs,
some of those folks Andy Ogles and the Freedom Caucus
(04:54):
who don't like the way Mike Johnson handles budgeting, the
fact that he has worked with Democrats so far, they
might be more of the thorn in his.
Speaker 2 (05:01):
Side, you know, all right, just to rehash if you're
just joining us on radio, TV, across our platforms, Republican
Mike Johnson winning re election as how Speaker, overcoming resistance
from a small but pivotal group of conservative hardliners after
a flurry of last minute talks and with the help
of a critical endorsement from President like Donald Trump. You know, Joe,
(05:21):
you understand the workings of Washington and what goes in
and around the nation's capital so well. It will be
an interesting second term of Donald Trump, and most already
say it's going to be different from the first White House.
I am curious if you were sitting down though, with
the Speaker, what would be your first question to him?
Speaker 3 (05:40):
Boy?
Speaker 1 (05:40):
You know, how often do you guys talk Because a
lot of people think Donald Trump is the real speaker,
and you've got arguably Donald Trump on one shoulder and
Elon Musk on the other. So this is really framed
by many the hardest job in Washington, at least the
most unwonted job in Washington is being the Speaker of
the House with.
Speaker 3 (05:59):
Such a narrow mid major.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
I guess i'd ask him, to what extent are you
willing to work with hackem Jeffreys as well, because they're
going to need each other to do anything in this case.
It's not so much a power sharing agreement in the
traditional sense when you'd have a real tie, but with
one member, my goodness, they're going to have to work
together on a lot of things here, and that's going
to make life more challenging for Mike Johnson. Question is again,
how quick can they get to the border? That's what
(06:22):
people want to see, those who brought Donald Trump back
to Washington, and that will likely be the first bill
that you see emerge.
Speaker 4 (06:28):
How tenuous is Speaker Johnson's position right now? I think
back to the challenges that former House Speaker McCarthy faced, Yeah,
just a couple of years ago before this. How tenuous
is his position right now?
Speaker 1 (06:43):
It's less tenuous simply by the math tim they're going
to be voting on a rules package that I refer
to already here. That's one of the next procedural things
that will take place that changes that motion to vacate.
We kept talking about the procedure through which you fire
the speaker, as Kevin McCarthy, he made a deal to
get that gavel by bringing it down to a single member.
(07:05):
That's partly why Matt Gates is famous at this point
because he took care of that. No longer in the House,
and by the way, he didn't show up today as
some thought he might. That number increased to nine. Now
it would take nine members to trigger a vote.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
To fire the speaker.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
So you've got a little bit of breathing room for
Mike Johnson procedurally but also politically because he's got Donald
Trump at his back, He's got Elon Musk behind him,
and will likely be in much better shape in this
Congress than anything we saw in the last.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
I will say that we do have members of the
House weighing in. Representative Scott Perry from Pennsylvania say, while
I maintained my reservations about Speaker Johnson's leadership record, today
I voted in support of President Trump's agenda. We will
hold Speaker Johnson accountable to accomplish the Republican agenda, and
talking about specific issues, he must secure our southern border, institute,
(07:53):
commence House rules, cut and bridled federal spending, implement a
Congressional stock trade band. So you know, various members weighing
in maybe on some of their concerns. Joe and I
would assume that we'll continue to hear some of these
about what they expect out of this speaker.
Speaker 3 (08:08):
Yes, sure you will.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
And that's an important one that you mentioned, by the way,
not by accident, because that is a member of the
Freedom Caucus who has been on the fence with some
of this, not so much about the Trump agenda. These
are Maga loyalists, but they are not always in favor
of the way that Mike Johnson or before him, Kevin
McCarthy has worked with Democrats continuing resolutions omnibus bills. They
(08:30):
want regular order and they want steep spending cuts. And
by the way, I've mentioned Elon Musk a couple of times.
Right before this vote, Mike Johnson went on X and
put quite a missive and said, as.
Speaker 3 (08:41):
Speaker, I commit to do the following. There were three items.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
The very first one was to commit to working with
Doge and to enact the spending cut recommendations that come
from Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswami.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
It may have helped him win the gavel today.
Speaker 2 (08:58):
All right, Joe, do not go anywhere. Chris need you
at this hour, no doubt about that. We do have
somebody up there on Capitol Hill, our own Tyler Candall.
She's a Bloomberg News reporter. Tyler, what I am interested
in what you are picking up in terms of mood
and maybe what was going on behind the scenes when
Mike Johnson didn't initially get that vote and had to
(09:18):
do some work behind the scenes.
Speaker 5 (09:21):
Yeah, hey, Carol, it was fast moving up here on
Capitol Hill. And just to give you a little bit
of color, what's happening up here. The hill is absolutely
packed both with members but also their families as they
come to witness the new member class be sworn in.
So there is high energy here in the rotunda. I
can tell you that I was sticking out how Speaker
Mike Johnson's office earlier today before the vote, where he
(09:42):
told reporters that he would not engage in what he
called a quid pro quo to get any votes over
the finish line. So that's going to be the next
big question here. As Joe was talking about, what were
those backroom deals that may have been reached in order
to ultimately get him to that magic number of two eighteen.
Speaker 4 (09:57):
As Joe mentioned, the challenging part comes now, Tyler, what
does Mike Johnson have to do to be able to
actually be effective as House Speaker with such a slight majority.
Speaker 5 (10:09):
Right, So, I had reporting this morning that I had
spoken to a Congressional aid who told me that they
ultimately thought that this was going to come down to
potential spending cuts, some sort of deal around that. Since
when he looked at the members who were voicing concerns
with Johnson, they were the same members who had previously
voiced concerns when it comes to potentially a Donald Trump's
agenda and what that means for the fiscal outlook for
(10:30):
the country, particularly anticipated tax cuts. So I think that's
going to see something that we really see prioritized in
this next congress, particularly with Speaker Johnson. Joe had also
mentioned this, but right before he went on the floor,
he put out what he was calling his list of
commitments to his conference, and they really had to deal
with this idea of fiscal responsibility, such as working with
(10:51):
joje and pointing independent experts that will release a report
to the public, but also urging his committees that they
have to take what he called, quote a great action
when it came to reviewing their appropriations, because we are
expecting a busy year, particularly with President elect Trump's new agenda,
and it's going to include spending, and it's going to
include tax cuts. And this was just a little bit
(11:13):
of a preview for some of the criticism and Thorn's
in the side of Speaker Johnson that we might expect.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Tyler, I've got to say I've been watching and monitoring
to see if the President elect has made any comments
on truth social and just kind of watching to see
if he makes any comments. What, if anything, did you
hear about behind the scenes of any involvement of the
President elect in this process, especially since when it seemed
like it was a little bit touch and go here
(11:39):
at the end, Well.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
I have to say there was actually an audible gas
peer in the rotunda when chip Roy ended up going
for President elect Trump. We know that chip Roy had
been one of those holdouts and he had previously sparred
with President elect Trump. If you'll recall, during that spending
debate last month, when Trump had urged Republicans to lift
the debt ceiling, he threatened Roy with a primary challenge cance.
(12:01):
Roy stood up and said that he was not going
to end up voting for that. So it was interesting
to hear that when President elect Trump threw his weight
behind Johnson, he offered to personally call members and that
included Trip Royce. We are and on the first round,
of course, trip Roy ended up going for Mike Johnson.
So it does appear that there was some sort of
sway there, and we are also told that allies of
(12:23):
Trump on the Hill ended up going into trying to
push and work with Speaker Mike Johnson when it came
to persuading some of these House Freedom Caucus members. But
ultimately important to remember that on that first round vote,
trip Roy and also the Chair of the House Freedom Caucus,
Andy Harris, both voted in favor of Johnson.
Speaker 4 (12:42):
Tyler Kendall, Bloomberg News reporter joining us live from Capitol Hill.
Speaker 3 (12:46):
Thanks so much for that.
Speaker 4 (12:46):
I do want to go back to Joe Matthew standing
by in our Washington DC Bureau co host of Bloomberg
Balance of Power. Excuse me, Joe, so many shows out there.
I want to go back to what you said about DOGE,
the Department of Government Efficiency and the commitment on the
Department of Government Efficiency from the elected Speaker of the
(13:07):
House Mike Johnson, and hear a little bit about your
view on how this could be easier said than done.
Given how much the US government spends on Social Security, Medicare,
national defense, health even net interest. I mean that's the
majority of the budget right there. How does the Speaker
(13:28):
enact the recommendations from DOGE.
Speaker 1 (13:31):
It's a great question, and I'll preface my answer by
saying that this DOGE, the d for Department, is not
actually a government department, right, This is kind of a
blue ribbon panel, if you will, not, unlike other committees
that have been put together before. So we've been trying
to determine where's the connective tissue here between the DOGE
and the actual lawmaking when it comes to writing legislation
(13:54):
or crafting budgets. He wrote in his post on X
I commit to create a working group prized of independent experts,
not corrupted by lobbyists and special interests to work with
DOGE and our committees on implementing recommended government and spending
reforms to protect the American taxpayer. There's no guarantee there
that that actually happens, though, and we don't exactly know
(14:15):
yet what the DOGE plans to do in terms of
cutting spending. We've heard Elon Musk suggests cutting two trillion dollars,
but I think to your point, Tim, they'd have to
probably crack into entitlements to find that kind of money.
They would have the slash defense spending, neither of which
Donald Trump wants to do.
Speaker 4 (14:31):
Yeah, I've heard that called the third rail of politics.
People don't necessarily want to touch that. Joe, all right, Joe,
thanks so much. Right, Yeah, Joe, thanks so much. We're
gonna let you go. You got a lot of work
to do. That's a Bloomberg's Joe Matthew down there in Washington, DC.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
I'm grateful for this nomination.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
I'm grateful for this election, for the confidence this Chamber
has placed in me.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
It is the great honor of my life to serve
this body with all of you.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
Speaker Johnson Lang at the Republican Agenda the priority is
a return to in his words, to common sense after
winning re election as House Speaker, overcoming resistance from a
small but pivotal group of conservative hardliners after a flurry
of last minute talk something we were watching happen in
real time from the House floor. And also he did
(15:17):
have the help of a critical endorsement from President like
Donald Trump, who has come out tim untruths social offering
up his congratulations to Speaker Mike Johnson for receiving in
the president x words, an unprecedented vote of confidence in Congress.
He says, Mike will be a great speaker and our
country will be the beneficiary.
Speaker 4 (15:34):
Yeah, so wasn't just Mike Johnson he we heard from.
We also heard from Kim Jeffries.
Speaker 3 (15:40):
A little earlier.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
Absolutely, Chris said it is time for us to come together,
not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans to get
things done for the people. In that spirit, House Democrats
work hard to find bipartisan common with our Republican colleagues
in the incoming administration on any issue, whenever and wherever possible.
Speaker 2 (15:57):
Someone who will be following what kind of common ground
they altimately find is Bloomberg News Politics editor Laura Davison,
She's been sitting by listening to all of the happenings
on the floor of the US House of Representative. She's
there in our Bloomberg News DC bureau. Laura, you do wonder, okay, ultimately,
after listening to the Minority Leader Hakim Jeffries, followed by
(16:19):
the House Speaker Mike Johnson, their agendas, their priorities, they
certainly do not align. So you do wonder about the
common ground that they will find moving forward.
Speaker 6 (16:31):
Yeah, these speeches are sort of the first day of
school speeches. You know, everyone's back, you know they want
re election back after the holidays and feeling optimistic and
you know, joyful. A lot of those feelings subside, you know,
really within just days or even hours. You Republicans have
full control. They do not have to negotiate with Democrats
for much of anything. They're able to use these processes
(16:52):
where they can fast track bills through Congress. So it's
unlikely that we're going to see much bipartisan cooperation despite
some of both what Hakeim Jeffreys says as well as
Mike Johnson sort of alluding to working together. Really, you know,
Democrats job in this is to sort of do whatever
they can do to delay and try to you know,
sw division among Republicans. Mike Johnson's job is to keep
(17:13):
his Republican party together. There are some divisions in that party,
things that Democrats could exploit. He has a narrow, narrow majority,
even narrower than he did last Congress. So this is
going to be the big challenge going forward. You also have,
you know, Republicans in the Senate and Republicans in the
House not on the same page. In the Senate, we
heard John Thune say earlier that he wants to move
first with an immigration bill. In the House that we
(17:35):
are talking more about doing taxes first. So there's a
lot of ideas and you know, only a limited sort
of pathway to get some of these legislative priorities done.
Speaker 4 (17:43):
What does the President elect want Congress to do?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
This is a good question.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
He has not weighed in some of his aids, have
really pushed for immigration to be that first priority and
really leaned on John Thune in the Senate to make
that path forward. What we've heard from folks in the
House is said, look, you know, every time we've tried
to do multiple things, you know, they sort of in
a moment of sort of shocking self recognition, we can't
do that. You know, we saw in Trump's first term
(18:09):
they tried to do with a healthcare bill that filled
failed and they ultimately moved on to taxes. What Democrats
some Republicans are saying, look, let's get taxes done. We
have a year end deadline. If we don't act, if
we don't get a bill pass, then taxes will go up.
We will see sort of Trump's first term signature, legislative
achievement go away. So there's a hard push there to
really make sure that taxes get the priority and they
aren't waylaid by other things. You know, the Congress has
(18:32):
been bedeviled by an immigration package for decades, so I
think there's some concern that, you know that even though
they have Republicans all in control, that that still is
done an easy thing to get across the finish.
Speaker 2 (18:42):
Yep, we've all grown a little bit older watching that
and waiting in terms of immigration. Laura, thank you so much,
so appreciate your patients and listening along and giving us
some great commentary there. Bloomberg News Politics editor Laura Davison