December 25, 2024 • 39 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
So we all know that the House was able to
cut about fifteen hundred pages of a ridiculous bill continuing
resolution that was filled with waste and abuse and just
pure corruption of Washington DC. We know now that the
Senate has passed it, so there's not going to be
a government shutdown now. In general, I want to be clear,
(00:23):
this is great news. That is the headline. The question
is how was the deal done and how did it
turn out to be so different than what was originally
going to happen. It is the art of the deal.
That's the best way I can describe it. And it
was a deal that certainly was going to put us
in a better place than we were before because many
(00:43):
conservatives were willing to stand up and fight hard. The
Maga revolt. That's how it's being described in the press
right now. Slash the original one thousand, five hundred and
forty seven page spending bill all the way down to
just one hundred and eighteen pages this Friday, and the
(01:06):
House bill to averted government shutdown was trimmed by one thousand,
three hundred and fifty nine pages after conservatives said, no,
we are not going to have this massive expansion of
government in a continuing resolution, and we're not going to
have the pork barrel spending in the cr as Well
(01:26):
House Speaker Mike Johnson's original measure was filled with pork,
there's no doubt about it. Now, he also had to
work a deal because he had to deal with Republicans
and Democrats, and that's a very tough spot to be in.
I want to be clear about that, and I'm going
to explain more about why I say that in a moment.
But the reduction in size underscores what I would say
(01:46):
is the failure by the pork barrel spenders in DC
who wanted to pass a massive spending bill with Democrats
support that few had even read before members were asked
to vote on it, and that is a problem. There
is an appetite for government reform right now. There's an
appetite for reducing the size of government. It's very clear
(02:07):
that there was a mandate for that in this last election.
There is a huge appetite in people supporting and advocating
for DOGE. That is going to be streamlining and changing
how we do and run and spend our money in
the US. That's being done by Elon Musk and by
Vi vic Ramaswami at the leadership of Donald Trump. Now
(02:31):
you put all that together, and Democrats are angry. They're
angry at Elon Musk, and they're angry at Maga. They're
angry at Conservatives for standing up to the government waste
and abuse. How angry are they? Let me play for you.
Rosa Delaro, who lost her mind on the floor of
(02:52):
the House is she's angry as she describes it, that
there is some man who is elected by no one
who is now giving marching orders to the House and
the Republicans to shut down the government. Issue described it.
Take a listen to the purpled haired Democrat from Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
We are on the cusp of an agreement to move
this country forward. But two days ago, a multi billionaire
with apparently no working knowledge of our government or of appropriations,
someone who is a self appointed president of the United States,
(03:33):
Elon Musk, issued a marching order for House Republicans to
go against their own elected leadership. Shut down the government.
Shut down the government. House Republicans are responsible for any
harm and uncertainty brought upon the American people, And should
(03:54):
some get their wish for a month long government shut down,
they will be respect for cleaning up their mess come
inauguration day. Indeed, we are in completely unprecedented times when
someone who has no knowledge of government, who has no
knowledge of an appropriations process, who is external to the
(04:19):
House of Representatives, can make his weight felt here in
turning what was a bill that was on its way,
a bipartisan bill, a bi cameral bill, was on its
way to achieving its goal of keeping the US government open,
(04:40):
and the goal actually is providing services to American citizens,
to working families, middle class families, vulnerable families where our
responsibility lies. The world's richest man read being billions in
(05:03):
government contracts, is calling the shots in the Republican Party
at the behest of the world's richest man, who no
one voted for. The United States Congress has been thrown
into pandemonian It leads you to the question of who
(05:23):
is in charge. I thought that there was a Republican
majority in this body, not a President Musk majority.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Now let's talk about what she said. Quote the self
appointed president of the United States, Elon mussy Issy to
a marching order for House Republicans to shut the government down.
What he made What he actually did was he said no,
I'm calling out the abuse of power. I'm calling out
the fact that you've got a bill that no one's read.
There's one five and forty seven pages long, filled with
(05:57):
port belle spending, and I want to reduce it. And
we did and condensed it into one hundred and eighteen
pages and excluded the extreme amount of pork that Johnson allowed,
by the way, in the original bill. Elon Musk is
not the President of the United States of America. But
what Elon Musk did was give a voice to the
voiceless in this country and those that don't have the
(06:18):
type of power to get the word out that he
clearly does. And the American people clearly agreed with him,
and the American people acted, and the American people called
their congressman, and the American people got rid literally, this
is no exaggeration, got rid of one thousand, three hundred
and fifty nine pages of government waste, abuse and fraud.
(06:44):
That is incredible. So was it worth it? Yes? Was
it anarchy?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
No?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Was it Elon Musk giving power to the people to
make sure that the people were able to do what
they need to do and say no to mass suspending. Yes,
now here's what you need to know about what they
have passed on the House side, and I'm going to
get to the Senate in a moment because the Senate
is controlled, as you know, by the Democrats right now.
(07:13):
The bill will fund the government until March fourteenth. It
also includes disaster relief and farm aid, which is very important.
The bill does not include an extension of the debt limit,
which President elect Donald Trump demanded. That will place Johnson's
reelection on January third for Speaker in a very precarious position.
(07:35):
I want to be clear, I support Speaker Johnson, and
I think we would get a much more liberal speaker
if Speaker Johnson is pushed out. And I don't like
what we're doing right now. Every time somebody because there's
such a thin margin for Republicans that there's a lot
of power now given to certain members in Congress. And
I don't like where we're headed with this, because if
(07:56):
you don't like your one way or the way things
are going, the fact that you can get rid of
another speaker, I think is a very bad decision. I
also think that Speaker Johnson has done a very good job,
and I think you will serve Donald Trump very well.
Much better than Kevin McCarthy would have ever done. And
if he's not careful, what's going to happen is you're
(08:16):
gonna end up getting a much more liberal member of
the body who would end up becoming the Speaker of
the House because he'll get some votes from Democrats to
do it more than likely, and then you'll lose an
actual conservative in Speaker Johnson. That's where we are now
with this. Now, let me also put it this way.
Punch Bowl News reported on the politics the latest proposed measure,
(08:38):
saying this, Johnson is now pushing a short term funding
bill that keeps federal agencies open until mid March. The
bill would include a hundred billion in disaster aid for
the hurricane batter in Southeast and other states. There's also
thirty billion in aid for farmers and a one year
extension of the current agriculture policy. The measure will be
(08:59):
taken up under suspicion according to senior GOP lawmakers and
AIDS meeting, meaning it needs a two third majority to pass.
There'll be one vote instead of individual votes on the
component parts as Johnson's first envisioned. Now what we know
is what happened. What we know now it's very clear
this has past the House, and it's passed the House,
(09:22):
and it now is the sentence. And I'm going to
talk about that vote obviously in a moment. But what
I want you to understand is this Speaker Johnson was
able to get this bill to drop significantly in size
and save you the taxpayers, hundreds of billions of dollars.
(09:42):
The problem now is you're now going to have a
debt sealing vote come early next year, and that's going
to be under the Republican leadership and under Donald Trump.
There are many people that didn't want that, don't like it,
didn't want to have to deal with this, and that's
a political issue that we're going to obviously have to
deal with. Quick Break Ferguson show, More coming up. So
(10:03):
let's talk about the fallout now of this deal. There
is clearly blood in the water over this deal, and
the sharks are circling around Speaker Johnson because of the
fighting and the pork and everything that's in this bill. Now,
I want to be clear, when you have this razor
thin majority as he does, it gives a lot of
(10:24):
yahoos in Congress a lot of power, and it makes
you have to listen to more people and to give
people more things. They want to make sure you get
their vote. Otherwise then you have a government shut down
and it's on you, the Republican Party. I want to
make it very clear that I still believe that Speaker
Johnson is a conservative, and I also want to be
(10:44):
clear that I think he's probably the most conservative that
we could get elected that would have the votes to
be elected as a Speaker of the House. I don't
like what we're doing right now, which every time there's
a vote on saying significant, there's this litanus test. It's like, well,
if you don't get me what I want, then I'm
going to get you out of your office and your job.
And I don't like a speaker being held hostage by
(11:05):
his own party. But that's the road that Republicans are
going down right now. And I'm saying it again. I
think you have to be extremely careful. You have to
be very, very, very very careful, because this is what
the Democratic Party does better than us. They don't eat
their own. We keep eating our own. And you have
(11:26):
to understand that there's ideals and then there's the reality
of the numbers. And if you look at the majority
and just how thin it is right now, We're lucky
to have the majority in the House. To be clear,
we're very lucky, and it is a razor thin majority.
What Speaker Johnson is having to walk into every day,
(11:46):
where any one or two or three Congressmen can hold
him hostage every single day of the week on any issue,
is not a healthy place for us to be. And
it's not Democrats that are holding him hostage, it is
Republicans that are holding him home. This is an extremely
hard job, especially when you have Republicans are in essence,
(12:08):
willing to walk in every day different ones and blackmail him. Now,
the deal he negotiated with the Democrats failed to get
a vote amid Republican outrage because of what he was
having to do, which was to give pork. He had
no other option but to do that or to have
a government shut down. Now, I want to be clear
(12:29):
about what did and didn't happen here because some people
are blaming Johnson for all this and they don't understand
the reality of the situation. The reason why we got
this bill reduced by thirteen hundred plus pages is because
the American people started calling, not Johnson but they're actual
members of Congress, and the actual members of Congress are
(12:50):
feeling the heat. They were afraid they were gonna get
in trouble or be primaried, and so then they decided
to do the right thing that allowed Johnson to get
a different deal done. And there's people that are ignorant.
They don't understand Johnson does not have near as much
power as you think when it comes to counting, because
you still have to count to two eighteen to pass something,
(13:11):
and Johnson was put in an impossible situation. And one
of the good things that came out of Elon Musk's
tweets and Vivicar Ramasom's tweets and Donald Trump's tweets is
that there was so much pressure put on members of
Congress to do the right thing that that's what happened.
This was not Speaker Johnson's fault. And if you think
that it is, you need to understand how Washington works,
(13:31):
and that's my job here is to explain it to you.
I also think that there is a problem, and this
is a storm that is brewing because we're going to
have a debt ceiling vote going into next year. I
don't like that but this is the best deal week
apparently could get done at the time, and you still
have to be able to count to two eighteen Now.
(13:52):
Friday afternoon, for example, there was a Republican representative from
New York delivered the latest blow to Johnson, walking into
a House Republican conference being to hash on another path
forward and made clear that she stands on Johnson's leadership
or lack thereof, saying quote, I don't know what's going on,
and really that's part of the problem, is what she
said to reporters, adding there has been quote zero communication
(14:14):
from leadership to the membership. Something should change before January third.
So you can already see Republicans are saying hey, and
it's one or two of them that can have this
much power. This is also an example of Representative Thomas Massey,
Republican from Kentucky. He's committed to voting against Johnson as well.
Representative Riche McCormick, a Republican from Georgia, said on Thursday
(14:38):
he would oppose Johnson if the vote were held today.
When asked how frustrating frustrated she was with Johnson. The
congresswoman that I mentioned a moment ago from New York answered,
how does it sound, referring to how mad she is? Now,
that's three Republicans. Look at the majority. It's razor thin.
(14:59):
I will tell you right now, there is no one
else on the list to be Speaker of the House
that is as conservative and or as solid of a
Christian is Speaker Johnson. Okay, Speaker Johnson keeps getting put
in an impossible situation over and over and over and
over and over again. Put into an impossible situation because
(15:25):
he has such a small window for success and there
are so many liberals out there, an opportunists, I would
argue in the Republican Party that can just straight up
screw with him whenever they want to. And that is
one of the biggest problems here. And that's why they're saying, ooh,
there's blood in the water. Oh maybe we can get
rid of him. My question is careful what you wish for?
(15:48):
Who are you going to get? That's the question that
everybody needs to be asking, who are you going to get? Now?
Representative of Chip Roy, for example, asking the question today,
sidestepping the question over Trump's primary thread over the spinning bill,
(16:08):
saying quote, I'm not worried about the politics.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Here, take a listen, all right for the very latest
on all of this, Let's bring in Texas Republican Cogressman
Chip Roy, who serves on the House Budget Committee. So
the meeting with the House Republican Conference is still going on.
I assume you were there for a time. What's going
on inside? And are we going to see a deal?
Are we going to see a vote? We're going to
see a government shuts down? All options on the table?
Speaker 5 (16:32):
I don't know. Hey, John, Hey Shannon.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
Great to be on and yeah, the meeting is still
underway as we speak, and we're having a good conversation.
And look, President Trump is absolutely right. We need to
deal with the dead ceiling. We need to get it
on the table so that he can proceed to do
what he needs to do without Chuck Schumer rattling the
markets with threats of default. That's what Chuck Schumer has
said publicly and to people in the Senate. He wants
to do so President Trump is right. The question is
(16:56):
how we get there. The first bill that was negotiated,
obviously was a non starter, and the American people saw
everything that was in five and fifty pages.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
So we've moved the needle forward to a better bill.
But it was a bill.
Speaker 6 (17:07):
And you asked, why did I oppose the bill last night?
Thirty eight Republicans opposed it was because it came with
two year extension of the debt ceiling, which would be
about five trillion dollar a lift in our credit card
without any structural spending reforms. So our position is, mister President,
we want to deliver for you on a debt ceiling
increase to get it out of the way. Chuck Schumer
(17:28):
can't abuse it, but we need spending restraints. So what
we've been doing for forty eight hours is meeting, meeting
with the Vice president, meeting with a lot of folks
in his incoming administration. I think we've got the outlines
of something that would work, but we're still discussing it
as we speak. I think we can get something done
that will make everybody happy. We're working hard to do it.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Okay, we'll talk about the outlines in just a second,
and let me come back to this idea of the
debt ceiling and voting against the proposal the President Trump
was proposing and was getting behind. He was supporting it
because he's now taken at you saying that you, Chip
Royer getting in the way of what he wants done,
and he's encouraging Republicans in Texas to primary you.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
You've really poked the barrier.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:10):
Look, at the end of the day, my job is
to honor God, my family, the Constitution, and the voters
who sent me here.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
That is what drives me.
Speaker 6 (18:18):
But I am working tirelessly to get what the president wants.
I think the President knows that at the end of
the day. Look politics or politics. Rick Perry called President
Trump a cancer and then ended up in his cabinet.
I'm not worried about politics. I'm worried about the American people.
I'm worried about inflation. I'm worried about a five trillion
dollars debt sealing increase with no spending cuts. The President
(18:38):
is rightly motivated to block Chuck Schumer's abuse, but we
Republicans here in Congress, in the House have an obligation
to get it done correctly. That's what we're working to
try to do on behalf of the President and our
constituents and our obligations under the Constitution.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
All right, So let's look behind the curtain.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
If we could just a little bit because our Aisha
Husti tells us that there's a couple of options being talked.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
About right now.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
One is a CR that will be coupled with Disaster
Aiate and Farm made.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
It would be effective through March.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
It would be the vote would be on a suspension
of the rules which limits debate no amendments. Or option
number two is a CR Disaster Rate and farm made
of separate bills in separate votes.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Which way do you think is going to go?
Speaker 6 (19:19):
Well, that is what is being debated as we speak,
and I don't want to get in front of the
speaker or my colleagues making news here or violate confidences
of a private meeting. But everything hinges on getting comfortable
with the outlines and the contours of spending restraint next
year in reconciliation as part of the agreement on how
much we can lift the debt ceiling. I think we're
(19:39):
getting comfortable with that outline as we speak, and then
if so, one of two things will happen. Either the
package last night without the debt ceiling attached to it
will move forward because the President is comfortable that we're
going to be able to get that done in January
or there might be some standalone votes on a continual
resolution plus the Farm Bill extension of one year a separate.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Now you can hear there they're talking to him about
this vote. We know what happened, We understand this. But
I want you to notice now what the media has done.
They are now trying to turn these votes into a
civil war within the Republican Party. Chip Roy's a good man,
he's a fiscal conservative, he's a Christian, he's a hard
(20:21):
fighter for our constitution, and he's somebody that I would
argue as a great member of Congress. I tell you
this tale to remind you to be careful to not
fall into the civil war idea within the Republican Party,
because this is what Democrats want. They want Donald Trump
(20:41):
angry to a conservative, hardcore member of Congress and being
at odds with one another. That is a problem. We
do not need to be in a civil war period.
So the media is going to spend this in a
different way. What the media is going to do is
they are going to spin it to tell you to
(21:02):
make you believe, okay, that this is somehow it was
a big waste of time, and that nothing actually big,
good or successful came out of this. I'll give you
an example of what I mean by this. Center Haggerty,
Republican Tennessee, was on a State of the Union on
CNN on Sunday, and I want you to hear what
(21:25):
he had to say, as CNN tried to turn averting
a shutdown, which is a victory, into a somehow disaster
and also trying to claim that you guys really didn't
accomplish anything at all by cutting fifteen hundred pages of spending, waste, abuse,
and fraud and just pure corruption out of the first bill,
(21:49):
which turned into the second bill that was one hundred
and something pages. All right, I want you to hear
CNN putting this together, trying to tell America that this
was somehow a failure for Trump, a failure for people
that want to have responsibility in spending, a failure for
Elon Musk, a failure for Romasawmi, a failure for DOJE,
(22:11):
even though it clearly was a victory. And then they're like, oh,
and by the way, you guys didn't increase the debt ceiling,
so you' are gonna have to do that in Trump
and Trump demand it, So you guys failed him. There
so this is a disaster. Look, you still got to
get the votes, and you have a Democratic Senate, and
the Democratics Senate had to agree to something, and I
think they weren't going to agree to increase the debt
(22:31):
ceiling because they want to force Donald Trump to do
that when he's in office. So there's what you want
and there's reality. And the reality was Republicans had to
give something to the Senate that the Senate would actually pass.
And so Democrats made it very clear they did not
want to increase the debt ceiling, even though this is
(22:52):
clearly Joe Biden's fault, and they want to hand that
negative to Donald Trump when he comes into office in January. Again,
you want to know how corrupt CNN is. You want
to know how how terrible data Bash is at her job,
and you want to hear just how evil they are
about telling you what's actually going on in America. Listen
to this back and forth with her and with Center
(23:14):
Bill Haggerty. He's on the Appropriations Committee. That's why they
had him on. Listen.
Speaker 7 (23:19):
Understandable given what you just described and what we all witnessed,
but also given the fact that you know him well
and you understand what he was going for. The final
spending bill that you all approved did not have any
new spending cuts. It didn't include the debt limit increase
that Donald Trump was demanding. So what did he accomplish
(23:41):
with all of this?
Speaker 8 (23:43):
Well, the main thing, and I can share with you
my perspective on a Dana, is this. We have had
our appropriations bills on the floor of the United States
Senate since this past summer. Chuck Schumer has refused to
bring them forward.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
This is a.
Speaker 8 (23:56):
Typical Washington process where we wind up with a work
product that the American public can't possibly understand. They dumped
over fifteen hundred pages on us, and Elon Musk using
the tool of Twitter, brought transparency to the entirety of it.
The American public were shocked. We are always shocked when
we see these types of monstrosities at the last minute
that haven't been properly vetted. And President Trump was able
to bring his weight to the table and say, look, this.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Has got to stop.
Speaker 8 (24:19):
This has got to be skinning down, this has got
to change. My overarching goal coming into this was to
make certain that the government didn't shut down. Because President
Trump over the next thirty days, needs to be able
to process his nominees. We need to be able to
put him place to get to work on January the twentieth,
because three quarters of the American public feel that the
United States is on the wrong track right now. So
(24:40):
I appreciate the fact that Elon Musk made this transparent
and that we were able to actually improve this. We
didn't get everything we wanted, certainly I didn't, but we're
in a better place now because we're going to be
in a position to make certain that President Trump is
ready to go in day one.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
I got to give kudos to Haggarty for dealing with
it the way that he just did and saying it
the way that he just did. They dumped over fifteen
hundred pages on us, and I appreciate the fact that
Elon Musk made this transparent. This is the reason why
I will never trust the media again, because the lack
of transparency from the media. They don't want there to
(25:13):
be transparency. They do not want for you and I
to know what's happening. Neither does the swamp. They want
us guessing all the time. They don't want us to
understand what is in the bills. This goes back to
Nancy Pelosi. We won't know what's in the bill until
we pass the bill. That is the mantra of the left.
(25:34):
All right, now, there's a second part of this that
I want you to know about that it's becoming an
issue as well, and that is Speaker Johnson. There are
many that are hoping that Donald Trump will come in
and that there will be a big fight and they
will get rid of Speaker Johnson, and that there will
be chaos within the Republican Party. I'm going to say
(25:55):
what I said earlier. I'm going to warn you about
this right now. Speaker Johnson and at this point is
clearly the most conservative speaker that we could get. And
if we get rid of Speaker Johnson, I'm telling you
right now, we're going to get a much more liberal speaker.
That is why Democrats are pushing for this. Okay, I'll
give you an example of how they're starting to bring
(26:15):
this into an issue On ABC this week, what did
they say about Speaker Johnson. What they said was, well,
he's in real trouble and they're wanting this to be
the story going into January.
Speaker 9 (26:26):
Listen carefully, Join now by ABC News contributing political correspondent
and Political Capital Bureau chief Rachel Bade.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So, Rachel, why.
Speaker 9 (26:36):
Did so many Republicans defy Trump?
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Well, you know, John, in a lot of ways, I
feel like President Trump was sort of asking for the
impossible in this situation. I mean, there's been a lot
of hot takes out there that he in some way
has lost his juice with Republicans or his way with
the party. I don't buy that, and I'll tell you why.
I mean, if you look at debt ceiling votes, historically,
this is a toxic vote for Republicans, especially when you're
trying to raise the debt healing without corresponding spending cuts
(27:02):
or really any spending cuts whatsoever. And I went back
and looked at a lot of the votes on the
debt ceiling in past years, even when President Trump was
president before, and way more Republicans opposed it. I'm talking
about in the hundreds to two hundred at one point,
and so I'm surprised that only thirty eight Republicans actually
opposed this. The bigger issue, in my view, is this
sheer breakdown in communication between President Trump and Speaker Johnson. Here.
(27:25):
I mean President Trump.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
By the way, you notice how all this is doom
and gloom, Like, are you hearing this? We cut fifteen
hundred pages of government waste, and they're saying it's doom
and gloom. We cut a bill with transparency because of
the influence of Donald Trump and Elon Musk and X
and putting it out there, having transparency for the people,
(27:48):
and they're telling you it's doom and gloom. I want
you to understand that what happened to Donald Trump in
twenty sixteen is exactly the way the media is wanting
twenty twenty four to go. He's lost his juice, He's
already he's already in trouble. Are this is a disaster
for Republicans. They're already fighting. I can't believe that in
(28:10):
cut government spending. I can't believe that they were in
this situation. Donald Trump had an unrealistic expectation for Republicans,
all of this doom and gloom. Even in a successful
vote that cut a bill by fifteen hundred pages, eighty
something percent of the pages disappeared because of transparency. And
(28:34):
somehow they start every single Sunday morning talk show saying
the same damn thing. Wow, Donald Trump may have lost
his juice. Donald Trump got screwed by Republicans. The Speaker
of the House is going to lose everything. Oh, look
how bad things are. Woe is me. Look how terrible
things are. Look how awful things are, One after another,
after another, after another after another. Doom and gloom, doom
(28:56):
and gloom, doom and gloom, doom and gloom, doom and gloom.
It's constant with these people. It is constant. And so
what I would say is, when you hear this, look
at the reality of the situation. Was this a success
this week? Yes, what I've loved for the debt ceiling
have been raised. Yes, But I'm also a realist and
I know that the Democrats have controlled the Senate and
they weren't gonna vote for that, and then there would
(29:17):
have been a government shutdown, and it wasn't gonna hurt
Joe Biden because he's already out of office. And then
Donald Trump could have inherited a government that was shut down.
If you go back to ABC this week in the
second part of the interview, So the first part is
everything's bad, Donald Trump's losses Mojoe, Democrats are brilliant, uh,
And Donald Trump is going to lose a speaker. Right,
(29:37):
that's the second part of this, right, because they're gonna
tell you how bad things are, and then they're gonna
they're starting they're trying to start civil war between Speaker
Johnson and Maga Republicans so that you believe that he
is a terrible person. And it's all about you believing that.
Listen to part two of ABC This Week where they say,
and then this war between Speaker Johnson Donald Trump, Oh,
(29:58):
it's really bad, folks.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Johnson he wanted him to do this right after the election.
That they've been talking about this for a long time.
Johnson's folks have been sort of under the impression that
this wasn't a big priority for President Trump until two
days before the deadline when he came up and sort
of blew up the deal. Also, President Trump was under
the impression that when he did add the debt ceiling
to the cr of the Continuing Resolution, that it was
actually going to pass, and that's why he sort of
(30:20):
leaned in and tried to sort of say, look, Republicans,
you need to do this. If he had known he
was going to lose thirty eight Republicans, he wouldn't have
done this and so the relationship right now. I mean,
they've got some work to do if they want to
be effective next year.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Johnson, They've got some work to do, folks. I don't believe,
by the way, any of the craps you just said.
I think Donald Trump leaned in to cut fifteen hundred
pages of a sixteen hundred plus page bill, and that's
what he leaned in on. Did he get everything he
wanted to know? Our Democrats in control of the Senate? Yes,
is there a slim majority in the House? Yes? Was
(30:53):
this going to be tough to do right before people
are leaving and many people are leaving Congress forever that
lost re election because they're going to stick it to Trump,
including some Republicans at loss. Yes. Do I believe in
this doom and gloom the way that they're talking about it.
I do not. I do not at all. And then
listen to this part where they're like, ah, well, now
we got it. We got a problem with Speaker Johnson.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
That speaker of Genuary.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
There it's the million dollar question right now, john I
will say people have underestimated Johnson quite a bit in
the past year, and oftentimes he's sort of you know
outlasts his naysayers here, but the situation is different. I mean,
I've talked to a lot of Trump folks over the
past couple of days, and Trump has really soured on him.
It feels like something in this relationship has really broken.
Speaker 9 (31:37):
He needs Trump to get reelected.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Absolutely, he needs Trump. And not only does he need
Trump's endorsement, He's going to need President Trump to lean
in to actually get that gavel. And right now I'm
hearing from people that there's a real question about whether
Trump's going to lift a finger for him to do this.
I think the question Trump has to ask himself is
is ousting Johnson worth potentially upending his agenda at the
beginning of the year and creating this sort of stall
(32:01):
in momentum. I mean, look, we remember the speakership chaos.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
When McCarthy, of course Macarthia.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
A whole month went by when we had no idea
who was leaving the conference. Right now, this speakership vote
is set for January third. President Trump, his victory is
set to be certified on January sixth. I was talking
to someone last night, pretty high up and Republican on
the Hill, who was saying that without a speaker, you
can't certify his election. So does he really want to
do this? Does he want to stall his agenda? But
(32:28):
perhaps he feels like it's worth it. I guess time
will tell, all right, Rachel bag.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
By the way, I want to tell you multiple reasons
why I disagree with the analysis that I just played
for you. I don't believe that their rift is anything
close to what they're trying to do on TV, which
is to trying to start a civil war. I believe
that Speaker Johnson and Donald Trump have a good working relationship.
They have done multiple events together recently. He's been down
(32:56):
at mar Lago recently. Multiple times, they had multileultiple events
together on the campaign trail. They helped raise money to
get others elected, Republicans elected, and they worked really well
getting Donald Trump into tight races to make sure that
they were able to win a Senate majority, as thin
as it may be a House majority, I should say,
(33:16):
as soon as it may be. I don't believe this
idea that Speaker Johnson is in serious trouble. In fact,
I would argue that Donald Trump is smart enough right
now to say, hey, I need to move forward with
an agenda with a conservative and Speaker Johnson is the
best conservative that could get elected right now. What they're
(33:37):
hoping is that this is a party in chaos. Headline
today Johnson Carl Congress chaos right. This is how they
spread it to the country. This is how they try
to start a civil war. Listen.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
If you were watching Congress this week, you might have
thought for a moment that Donald Trump is already president.
Along with his most high profile and wealthiest advisor, Trump
upended a bipartisan spending deal that had been months in
the making. But the power of a president elect, just
like the power of a president, only goes so far.
(34:14):
And while Trump's hold on the Republican Party is not
in doubt, we saw that his power to get Congress
to do what he wants has its limits. As Congress
veered towards a shutdown, Trump made only one non negotiable demand.
He said that the bill to keep the government open
must also increase or abolish the so called debt cealing
(34:35):
that's the amount the federal government can.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
Borrow to pay its bills.
Speaker 9 (34:39):
Without this, Trump said on social media, we should never
make a deal. And this wasn't just advice. It came
with a warning that he might campaign against Republicans who
dared to defy him. Trump declaring any Republican that would
be so stupid as to do this should and will
be primaried with that. Thirty eight Republicans defied their president's elect.
(35:04):
They were either unworried about his warning or simply didn't
take it seriously.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
And in the end, by the way, or it was
Republicans that were leaving office. Notice how they don't tell
you that part of the story. There are members of
Congress that are not coming back that voted on this.
It would be nice if they ran out actually honest
enough to tell you that. They haven't told you that.
And the reason why it's very clear they don't want
you to know that. But remember this is all about
(35:31):
doom and gloom, and I'm warning you the propaganda is
full speed ahead right now. Keep listening to part two
of this propaganda.
Speaker 9 (35:40):
One hundred and seventy Republicans, along with almost all of
the Democrats, approved a bill to temporarily fund the government
without raising the dead sealing, again defying Trump's demand. Trump
had very good reason to insist on raising or eliminating
the dead sealing. The government is on pace to hit
the limit on how much it can borrow next spring,
(36:03):
and if it is not raised, the government faces default
with dire consequences for the economy and for the Trump agenda.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
This week proved he won't.
Speaker 9 (36:13):
Be able to count on Republicans alone to avert that disaster.
One casualty of this shutdown mess maybe the Speaker of
the House, Mike Johnson. He tried to do Trump's bidding
and he failed, hurting his standing with the President elect
and with at least some of his Republican colleagues. Will
he be re elected as Speaker when Congress reconvenes on
(36:36):
January third, with a minuscule Republican majority, that could take
a minor miracle. On the show this morning, we'll hear from.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
A Republican again. That is the lead in. You just
noticed in that lead in there was not a single
thing about a massive cut in the number of pages.
That is the beginning of ABC's this week when they're
running their biggest show of the week and they start
with Congress chaos. Chaos, by the way, you could argue
(37:07):
to be a government shutdown which we didn't have. Chaos
would be passing a bill that no one had read
which didn't happen. Chaos would be a bill filled with
pork so big that it was seventeen sixteen hundred pages
that didn't happen. We cut fifteen hundred pages from a bill.
Does that sound like chaos? Doesn't sound like chaos to me.
(37:32):
We have a Speaker who had a very tight majority
and got a deal done to avert a government shutdown,
which they would have definitely blamed on Donald Trump. That
didn't happen either. We have a debt ceiling vote that's
going to come up, no doubt about it. But the
reality is they've got now time to think about how
they're going to do it, and how they're gonna do
(37:52):
it in the best way possible. I will go back
to what I said at the beginning. I don't believe
that Speaker Johnson has a mass of soured relationship with
Donald Trump right now. I think that's a media telling
a lie. I wanted to start a civil war. I
believe that this was a great scenario, a great scenario
that what just took place, and I'm glad that it
(38:13):
took place the way that it did. I'm glad we
got rid of fifteen hundred pages. This was what I
would refer to as a very clear victory for Donald Trump.
And yet the media doesn't mention the number of pages cut,
and they still tell you it's a terrible day in America.
You need to remember they lie to you on purpose
for a reason. They lie to you on purpose because
(38:33):
they want you to hate Trump, and they want you
to hate Speaker Johnson, and they want you to think
they can't govern, and they want you to be angry.
Don't take the bait. Enjoy knowing that we just had
a victory of cutting government waste and spending. Don't forget
Share this podcast with your family and friends on social media.
(38:56):
Please write us a five star review and I will
see you back here tomorrow.
So we all know that the House was able to
cut about fifteen hundred pages of a ridiculous bill continuing
resolution that was filled with waste and abuse and just
pure corruption of Washington DC. We know now that the
Senate has passed it, so there's not going to be
a government shutdown now. In general, I want to be clear,
(00:23):
this is great news. That is the headline. The question
is how was the deal done and how did it
turn out to be so different than what was originally
going to happen. It is the art of the deal.
That's the best way I can describe it. And it
was a deal that certainly was going to put us
in a better place than we were before because many
(00:43):
conservatives were willing to stand up and fight hard. The
Maga revolt. That's how it's being described in the press
right now. Slash the original one thousand, five hundred and
forty seven page spending bill all the way down to
just one hundred and eighteen pages this Friday, and the
(01:06):
House bill to averted government shutdown was trimmed by one thousand,
three hundred and fifty nine pages after conservatives said, no,
we are not going to have this massive expansion of
government in a continuing resolution, and we're not going to
have the pork barrel spending in the cr as Well
(01:26):
House Speaker Mike Johnson's original measure was filled with pork,
there's no doubt about it. Now, he also had to
work a deal because he had to deal with Republicans
and Democrats, and that's a very tough spot to be in.
I want to be clear about that, and I'm going
to explain more about why I say that in a moment.
But the reduction in size underscores what I would say
(01:46):
is the failure by the pork barrel spenders in DC
who wanted to pass a massive spending bill with Democrats
support that few had even read before members were asked
to vote on it, and that is a problem. There
is an appetite for government reform right now. There's an
appetite for reducing the size of government. It's very clear
(02:07):
that there was a mandate for that in this last election.
There is a huge appetite in people supporting and advocating
for DOGE. That is going to be streamlining and changing
how we do and run and spend our money in
the US. That's being done by Elon Musk and by
Vi vic Ramaswami at the leadership of Donald Trump. Now
(02:31):
you put all that together, and Democrats are angry. They're
angry at Elon Musk, and they're angry at Maga. They're
angry at Conservatives for standing up to the government waste
and abuse. How angry are they? Let me play for you.
Rosa Delaro, who lost her mind on the floor of
(02:52):
the House is she's angry as she describes it, that
there is some man who is elected by no one
who is now giving marching orders to the House and
the Republicans to shut down the government. Issue described it.
Take a listen to the purpled haired Democrat from Connecticut.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
We are on the cusp of an agreement to move
this country forward. But two days ago, a multi billionaire
with apparently no working knowledge of our government or of appropriations,
someone who is a self appointed president of the United States,
(03:33):
Elon Musk, issued a marching order for House Republicans to
go against their own elected leadership. Shut down the government.
Shut down the government. House Republicans are responsible for any
harm and uncertainty brought upon the American people, And should
(03:54):
some get their wish for a month long government shut down,
they will be respect for cleaning up their mess come
inauguration day. Indeed, we are in completely unprecedented times when
someone who has no knowledge of government, who has no
knowledge of an appropriations process, who is external to the
(04:19):
House of Representatives, can make his weight felt here in
turning what was a bill that was on its way,
a bipartisan bill, a bi cameral bill, was on its
way to achieving its goal of keeping the US government open,
(04:40):
and the goal actually is providing services to American citizens,
to working families, middle class families, vulnerable families where our
responsibility lies. The world's richest man read being billions in
(05:03):
government contracts, is calling the shots in the Republican Party
at the behest of the world's richest man, who no
one voted for. The United States Congress has been thrown
into pandemonian It leads you to the question of who
(05:23):
is in charge. I thought that there was a Republican
majority in this body, not a President Musk majority.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
Now let's talk about what she said. Quote the self
appointed president of the United States, Elon mussy Issy to
a marching order for House Republicans to shut the government down.
What he made What he actually did was he said no,
I'm calling out the abuse of power. I'm calling out
the fact that you've got a bill that no one's read.
There's one five and forty seven pages long, filled with
(05:57):
port belle spending, and I want to reduce it. And
we did and condensed it into one hundred and eighteen
pages and excluded the extreme amount of pork that Johnson allowed,
by the way, in the original bill. Elon Musk is
not the President of the United States of America. But
what Elon Musk did was give a voice to the
voiceless in this country and those that don't have the
(06:18):
type of power to get the word out that he
clearly does. And the American people clearly agreed with him,
and the American people acted, and the American people called
their congressman, and the American people got rid literally, this
is no exaggeration, got rid of one thousand, three hundred
and fifty nine pages of government waste, abuse and fraud.
(06:44):
That is incredible. So was it worth it? Yes? Was
it anarchy?
Speaker 3 (06:49):
No?
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Was it Elon Musk giving power to the people to
make sure that the people were able to do what
they need to do and say no to mass suspending. Yes,
now here's what you need to know about what they
have passed on the House side, and I'm going to
get to the Senate in a moment because the Senate
is controlled, as you know, by the Democrats right now.
(07:13):
The bill will fund the government until March fourteenth. It
also includes disaster relief and farm aid, which is very important.
The bill does not include an extension of the debt limit,
which President elect Donald Trump demanded. That will place Johnson's
reelection on January third for Speaker in a very precarious position.
(07:35):
I want to be clear, I support Speaker Johnson, and
I think we would get a much more liberal speaker
if Speaker Johnson is pushed out. And I don't like
what we're doing right now. Every time somebody because there's
such a thin margin for Republicans that there's a lot
of power now given to certain members in Congress. And
I don't like where we're headed with this, because if
(07:56):
you don't like your one way or the way things
are going, the fact that you can get rid of
another speaker, I think is a very bad decision. I
also think that Speaker Johnson has done a very good job,
and I think you will serve Donald Trump very well.
Much better than Kevin McCarthy would have ever done. And
if he's not careful, what's going to happen is you're
(08:16):
gonna end up getting a much more liberal member of
the body who would end up becoming the Speaker of
the House because he'll get some votes from Democrats to
do it more than likely, and then you'll lose an
actual conservative in Speaker Johnson. That's where we are now
with this. Now, let me also put it this way.
Punch Bowl News reported on the politics the latest proposed measure,
(08:38):
saying this, Johnson is now pushing a short term funding
bill that keeps federal agencies open until mid March. The
bill would include a hundred billion in disaster aid for
the hurricane batter in Southeast and other states. There's also
thirty billion in aid for farmers and a one year
extension of the current agriculture policy. The measure will be
(08:59):
taken up under suspicion according to senior GOP lawmakers and
AIDS meeting, meaning it needs a two third majority to pass.
There'll be one vote instead of individual votes on the
component parts as Johnson's first envisioned. Now what we know
is what happened. What we know now it's very clear
this has past the House, and it's passed the House,
(09:22):
and it now is the sentence. And I'm going to
talk about that vote obviously in a moment. But what
I want you to understand is this Speaker Johnson was
able to get this bill to drop significantly in size
and save you the taxpayers, hundreds of billions of dollars.
(09:42):
The problem now is you're now going to have a
debt sealing vote come early next year, and that's going
to be under the Republican leadership and under Donald Trump.
There are many people that didn't want that, don't like it,
didn't want to have to deal with this, and that's
a political issue that we're going to obviously have to
deal with. Quick Break Ferguson show, More coming up. So
(10:03):
let's talk about the fallout now of this deal. There
is clearly blood in the water over this deal, and
the sharks are circling around Speaker Johnson because of the
fighting and the pork and everything that's in this bill. Now,
I want to be clear, when you have this razor
thin majority as he does, it gives a lot of
(10:24):
yahoos in Congress a lot of power, and it makes
you have to listen to more people and to give
people more things. They want to make sure you get
their vote. Otherwise then you have a government shut down
and it's on you, the Republican Party. I want to
make it very clear that I still believe that Speaker
Johnson is a conservative, and I also want to be
(10:44):
clear that I think he's probably the most conservative that
we could get elected that would have the votes to
be elected as a Speaker of the House. I don't
like what we're doing right now, which every time there's
a vote on saying significant, there's this litanus test. It's like, well,
if you don't get me what I want, then I'm
going to get you out of your office and your job.
And I don't like a speaker being held hostage by
(11:05):
his own party. But that's the road that Republicans are
going down right now. And I'm saying it again. I
think you have to be extremely careful. You have to
be very, very, very very careful, because this is what
the Democratic Party does better than us. They don't eat
their own. We keep eating our own. And you have
(11:26):
to understand that there's ideals and then there's the reality
of the numbers. And if you look at the majority
and just how thin it is right now, We're lucky
to have the majority in the House. To be clear,
we're very lucky, and it is a razor thin majority.
What Speaker Johnson is having to walk into every day,
(11:46):
where any one or two or three Congressmen can hold
him hostage every single day of the week on any issue,
is not a healthy place for us to be. And
it's not Democrats that are holding him hostage, it is
Republicans that are holding him home. This is an extremely
hard job, especially when you have Republicans are in essence,
(12:08):
willing to walk in every day different ones and blackmail him. Now,
the deal he negotiated with the Democrats failed to get
a vote amid Republican outrage because of what he was
having to do, which was to give pork. He had
no other option but to do that or to have
a government shut down. Now, I want to be clear
(12:29):
about what did and didn't happen here because some people
are blaming Johnson for all this and they don't understand
the reality of the situation. The reason why we got
this bill reduced by thirteen hundred plus pages is because
the American people started calling, not Johnson but they're actual
members of Congress, and the actual members of Congress are
(12:50):
feeling the heat. They were afraid they were gonna get
in trouble or be primaried, and so then they decided
to do the right thing that allowed Johnson to get
a different deal done. And there's people that are ignorant.
They don't understand Johnson does not have near as much
power as you think when it comes to counting, because
you still have to count to two eighteen to pass something,
(13:11):
and Johnson was put in an impossible situation. And one
of the good things that came out of Elon Musk's
tweets and Vivicar Ramasom's tweets and Donald Trump's tweets is
that there was so much pressure put on members of
Congress to do the right thing that that's what happened.
This was not Speaker Johnson's fault. And if you think
that it is, you need to understand how Washington works,
(13:31):
and that's my job here is to explain it to you.
I also think that there is a problem, and this
is a storm that is brewing because we're going to
have a debt ceiling vote going into next year. I
don't like that but this is the best deal week
apparently could get done at the time, and you still
have to be able to count to two eighteen Now.
(13:52):
Friday afternoon, for example, there was a Republican representative from
New York delivered the latest blow to Johnson, walking into
a House Republican conference being to hash on another path
forward and made clear that she stands on Johnson's leadership
or lack thereof, saying quote, I don't know what's going on,
and really that's part of the problem, is what she
said to reporters, adding there has been quote zero communication
(14:14):
from leadership to the membership. Something should change before January third.
So you can already see Republicans are saying hey, and
it's one or two of them that can have this
much power. This is also an example of Representative Thomas Massey,
Republican from Kentucky. He's committed to voting against Johnson as well.
Representative Riche McCormick, a Republican from Georgia, said on Thursday
(14:38):
he would oppose Johnson if the vote were held today.
When asked how frustrating frustrated she was with Johnson. The
congresswoman that I mentioned a moment ago from New York answered,
how does it sound, referring to how mad she is? Now,
that's three Republicans. Look at the majority. It's razor thin.
(14:59):
I will tell you right now, there is no one
else on the list to be Speaker of the House
that is as conservative and or as solid of a
Christian is Speaker Johnson. Okay, Speaker Johnson keeps getting put
in an impossible situation over and over and over and
over and over again. Put into an impossible situation because
(15:25):
he has such a small window for success and there
are so many liberals out there, an opportunists, I would
argue in the Republican Party that can just straight up
screw with him whenever they want to. And that is
one of the biggest problems here. And that's why they're saying, ooh,
there's blood in the water. Oh maybe we can get
rid of him. My question is careful what you wish for?
(15:48):
Who are you going to get? That's the question that
everybody needs to be asking, who are you going to get? Now?
Representative of Chip Roy, for example, asking the question today,
sidestepping the question over Trump's primary thread over the spinning bill,
(16:08):
saying quote, I'm not worried about the politics.
Speaker 4 (16:11):
Here, take a listen, all right for the very latest
on all of this, Let's bring in Texas Republican Cogressman
Chip Roy, who serves on the House Budget Committee. So
the meeting with the House Republican Conference is still going on.
I assume you were there for a time. What's going
on inside? And are we going to see a deal?
Are we going to see a vote? We're going to
see a government shuts down? All options on the table?
Speaker 5 (16:32):
I don't know. Hey, John, Hey Shannon.
Speaker 6 (16:35):
Great to be on and yeah, the meeting is still
underway as we speak, and we're having a good conversation.
And look, President Trump is absolutely right. We need to
deal with the dead ceiling. We need to get it
on the table so that he can proceed to do
what he needs to do without Chuck Schumer rattling the
markets with threats of default. That's what Chuck Schumer has
said publicly and to people in the Senate. He wants
to do so President Trump is right. The question is
(16:56):
how we get there. The first bill that was negotiated,
obviously was a non starter, and the American people saw
everything that was in five and fifty pages.
Speaker 1 (17:05):
So we've moved the needle forward to a better bill.
But it was a bill.
Speaker 6 (17:07):
And you asked, why did I oppose the bill last night?
Thirty eight Republicans opposed it was because it came with
two year extension of the debt ceiling, which would be
about five trillion dollar a lift in our credit card
without any structural spending reforms. So our position is, mister President,
we want to deliver for you on a debt ceiling
increase to get it out of the way. Chuck Schumer
(17:28):
can't abuse it, but we need spending restraints. So what
we've been doing for forty eight hours is meeting, meeting
with the Vice president, meeting with a lot of folks
in his incoming administration. I think we've got the outlines
of something that would work, but we're still discussing it
as we speak. I think we can get something done
that will make everybody happy. We're working hard to do it.
Speaker 4 (17:48):
Okay, we'll talk about the outlines in just a second,
and let me come back to this idea of the
debt ceiling and voting against the proposal the President Trump
was proposing and was getting behind. He was supporting it
because he's now taken at you saying that you, Chip
Royer getting in the way of what he wants done,
and he's encouraging Republicans in Texas to primary you.
Speaker 5 (18:07):
You've really poked the barrier.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (18:10):
Look, at the end of the day, my job is
to honor God, my family, the Constitution, and the voters
who sent me here.
Speaker 5 (18:16):
That is what drives me.
Speaker 6 (18:18):
But I am working tirelessly to get what the president wants.
I think the President knows that at the end of
the day. Look politics or politics. Rick Perry called President
Trump a cancer and then ended up in his cabinet.
I'm not worried about politics. I'm worried about the American people.
I'm worried about inflation. I'm worried about a five trillion
dollars debt sealing increase with no spending cuts. The President
(18:38):
is rightly motivated to block Chuck Schumer's abuse, but we
Republicans here in Congress, in the House have an obligation
to get it done correctly. That's what we're working to
try to do on behalf of the President and our
constituents and our obligations under the Constitution.
Speaker 5 (18:53):
All right, So let's look behind the curtain.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
If we could just a little bit because our Aisha
Husti tells us that there's a couple of options being talked.
Speaker 5 (19:00):
About right now.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
One is a CR that will be coupled with Disaster
Aiate and Farm made.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
It would be effective through March.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
It would be the vote would be on a suspension
of the rules which limits debate no amendments. Or option
number two is a CR Disaster Rate and farm made
of separate bills in separate votes.
Speaker 5 (19:17):
Which way do you think is going to go?
Speaker 6 (19:19):
Well, that is what is being debated as we speak,
and I don't want to get in front of the
speaker or my colleagues making news here or violate confidences
of a private meeting. But everything hinges on getting comfortable
with the outlines and the contours of spending restraint next
year in reconciliation as part of the agreement on how
much we can lift the debt ceiling. I think we're
(19:39):
getting comfortable with that outline as we speak, and then
if so, one of two things will happen. Either the
package last night without the debt ceiling attached to it
will move forward because the President is comfortable that we're
going to be able to get that done in January
or there might be some standalone votes on a continual
resolution plus the Farm Bill extension of one year a separate.
Speaker 1 (20:00):
Now you can hear there they're talking to him about
this vote. We know what happened, We understand this. But
I want you to notice now what the media has done.
They are now trying to turn these votes into a
civil war within the Republican Party. Chip Roy's a good man,
he's a fiscal conservative, he's a Christian, he's a hard
(20:21):
fighter for our constitution, and he's somebody that I would
argue as a great member of Congress. I tell you
this tale to remind you to be careful to not
fall into the civil war idea within the Republican Party,
because this is what Democrats want. They want Donald Trump
(20:41):
angry to a conservative, hardcore member of Congress and being
at odds with one another. That is a problem. We
do not need to be in a civil war period.
So the media is going to spend this in a
different way. What the media is going to do is
they are going to spin it to tell you to
(21:02):
make you believe, okay, that this is somehow it was
a big waste of time, and that nothing actually big,
good or successful came out of this. I'll give you
an example of what I mean by this. Center Haggerty,
Republican Tennessee, was on a State of the Union on
CNN on Sunday, and I want you to hear what
(21:25):
he had to say, as CNN tried to turn averting
a shutdown, which is a victory, into a somehow disaster
and also trying to claim that you guys really didn't
accomplish anything at all by cutting fifteen hundred pages of spending, waste, abuse,
and fraud and just pure corruption out of the first bill,
(21:49):
which turned into the second bill that was one hundred
and something pages. All right, I want you to hear
CNN putting this together, trying to tell America that this
was somehow a failure for Trump, a failure for people
that want to have responsibility in spending, a failure for
Elon Musk, a failure for Romasawmi, a failure for DOJE,
(22:11):
even though it clearly was a victory. And then they're like, oh,
and by the way, you guys didn't increase the debt ceiling,
so you' are gonna have to do that in Trump
and Trump demand it, So you guys failed him. There
so this is a disaster. Look, you still got to
get the votes, and you have a Democratic Senate, and
the Democratics Senate had to agree to something, and I
think they weren't going to agree to increase the debt
(22:31):
ceiling because they want to force Donald Trump to do
that when he's in office. So there's what you want
and there's reality. And the reality was Republicans had to
give something to the Senate that the Senate would actually pass.
And so Democrats made it very clear they did not
want to increase the debt ceiling, even though this is
(22:52):
clearly Joe Biden's fault, and they want to hand that
negative to Donald Trump when he comes into office in January. Again,
you want to know how corrupt CNN is. You want
to know how how terrible data Bash is at her job,
and you want to hear just how evil they are
about telling you what's actually going on in America. Listen
to this back and forth with her and with Center
(23:14):
Bill Haggerty. He's on the Appropriations Committee. That's why they
had him on. Listen.
Speaker 7 (23:19):
Understandable given what you just described and what we all witnessed,
but also given the fact that you know him well
and you understand what he was going for. The final
spending bill that you all approved did not have any
new spending cuts. It didn't include the debt limit increase
that Donald Trump was demanding. So what did he accomplish
(23:41):
with all of this?
Speaker 8 (23:43):
Well, the main thing, and I can share with you
my perspective on a Dana, is this. We have had
our appropriations bills on the floor of the United States
Senate since this past summer. Chuck Schumer has refused to
bring them forward.
Speaker 1 (23:56):
This is a.
Speaker 8 (23:56):
Typical Washington process where we wind up with a work
product that the American public can't possibly understand. They dumped
over fifteen hundred pages on us, and Elon Musk using
the tool of Twitter, brought transparency to the entirety of it.
The American public were shocked. We are always shocked when
we see these types of monstrosities at the last minute
that haven't been properly vetted. And President Trump was able
to bring his weight to the table and say, look, this.
Speaker 5 (24:19):
Has got to stop.
Speaker 8 (24:19):
This has got to be skinning down, this has got
to change. My overarching goal coming into this was to
make certain that the government didn't shut down. Because President
Trump over the next thirty days, needs to be able
to process his nominees. We need to be able to
put him place to get to work on January the twentieth,
because three quarters of the American public feel that the
United States is on the wrong track right now. So
(24:40):
I appreciate the fact that Elon Musk made this transparent
and that we were able to actually improve this. We
didn't get everything we wanted, certainly I didn't, but we're
in a better place now because we're going to be
in a position to make certain that President Trump is
ready to go in day one.
Speaker 1 (24:52):
I got to give kudos to Haggarty for dealing with
it the way that he just did and saying it
the way that he just did. They dumped over fifteen
hundred pages on us, and I appreciate the fact that
Elon Musk made this transparent. This is the reason why
I will never trust the media again, because the lack
of transparency from the media. They don't want there to
(25:13):
be transparency. They do not want for you and I
to know what's happening. Neither does the swamp. They want
us guessing all the time. They don't want us to
understand what is in the bills. This goes back to
Nancy Pelosi. We won't know what's in the bill until
we pass the bill. That is the mantra of the left.
(25:34):
All right, now, there's a second part of this that
I want you to know about that it's becoming an
issue as well, and that is Speaker Johnson. There are
many that are hoping that Donald Trump will come in
and that there will be a big fight and they
will get rid of Speaker Johnson, and that there will
be chaos within the Republican Party. I'm going to say
(25:55):
what I said earlier. I'm going to warn you about
this right now. Speaker Johnson and at this point is
clearly the most conservative speaker that we could get. And
if we get rid of Speaker Johnson, I'm telling you
right now, we're going to get a much more liberal speaker.
That is why Democrats are pushing for this. Okay, I'll
give you an example of how they're starting to bring
(26:15):
this into an issue On ABC this week, what did
they say about Speaker Johnson. What they said was, well,
he's in real trouble and they're wanting this to be
the story going into January.
Speaker 9 (26:26):
Listen carefully, Join now by ABC News contributing political correspondent
and Political Capital Bureau chief Rachel Bade.
Speaker 1 (26:35):
So, Rachel, why.
Speaker 9 (26:36):
Did so many Republicans defy Trump?
Speaker 3 (26:40):
Well, you know, John, in a lot of ways, I
feel like President Trump was sort of asking for the
impossible in this situation. I mean, there's been a lot
of hot takes out there that he in some way
has lost his juice with Republicans or his way with
the party. I don't buy that, and I'll tell you why.
I mean, if you look at debt ceiling votes, historically,
this is a toxic vote for Republicans, especially when you're
trying to raise the debt healing without corresponding spending cuts
(27:02):
or really any spending cuts whatsoever. And I went back
and looked at a lot of the votes on the
debt ceiling in past years, even when President Trump was
president before, and way more Republicans opposed it. I'm talking
about in the hundreds to two hundred at one point,
and so I'm surprised that only thirty eight Republicans actually
opposed this. The bigger issue, in my view, is this
sheer breakdown in communication between President Trump and Speaker Johnson. Here.
(27:25):
I mean President Trump.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
By the way, you notice how all this is doom
and gloom, Like, are you hearing this? We cut fifteen
hundred pages of government waste, and they're saying it's doom
and gloom. We cut a bill with transparency because of
the influence of Donald Trump and Elon Musk and X
and putting it out there, having transparency for the people,
(27:48):
and they're telling you it's doom and gloom. I want
you to understand that what happened to Donald Trump in
twenty sixteen is exactly the way the media is wanting
twenty twenty four to go. He's lost his juice, He's
already he's already in trouble. Are this is a disaster
for Republicans. They're already fighting. I can't believe that in
(28:10):
cut government spending. I can't believe that they were in
this situation. Donald Trump had an unrealistic expectation for Republicans,
all of this doom and gloom. Even in a successful
vote that cut a bill by fifteen hundred pages, eighty
something percent of the pages disappeared because of transparency. And
(28:34):
somehow they start every single Sunday morning talk show saying
the same damn thing. Wow, Donald Trump may have lost
his juice. Donald Trump got screwed by Republicans. The Speaker
of the House is going to lose everything. Oh, look
how bad things are. Woe is me. Look how terrible
things are. Look how awful things are, One after another,
after another, after another after another. Doom and gloom, doom
(28:56):
and gloom, doom and gloom, doom and gloom, doom and gloom.
It's constant with these people. It is constant. And so
what I would say is, when you hear this, look
at the reality of the situation. Was this a success
this week? Yes, what I've loved for the debt ceiling
have been raised. Yes, But I'm also a realist and
I know that the Democrats have controlled the Senate and
they weren't gonna vote for that, and then there would
(29:17):
have been a government shutdown, and it wasn't gonna hurt
Joe Biden because he's already out of office. And then
Donald Trump could have inherited a government that was shut down.
If you go back to ABC this week in the
second part of the interview, So the first part is
everything's bad, Donald Trump's losses Mojoe, Democrats are brilliant, uh,
And Donald Trump is going to lose a speaker. Right,
(29:37):
that's the second part of this, right, because they're gonna
tell you how bad things are, and then they're gonna
they're starting they're trying to start civil war between Speaker
Johnson and Maga Republicans so that you believe that he
is a terrible person. And it's all about you believing that.
Listen to part two of ABC This Week where they say,
and then this war between Speaker Johnson Donald Trump, Oh,
(29:58):
it's really bad, folks.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Johnson he wanted him to do this right after the election.
That they've been talking about this for a long time.
Johnson's folks have been sort of under the impression that
this wasn't a big priority for President Trump until two
days before the deadline when he came up and sort
of blew up the deal. Also, President Trump was under
the impression that when he did add the debt ceiling
to the cr of the Continuing Resolution, that it was
actually going to pass, and that's why he sort of
(30:20):
leaned in and tried to sort of say, look, Republicans,
you need to do this. If he had known he
was going to lose thirty eight Republicans, he wouldn't have
done this and so the relationship right now. I mean,
they've got some work to do if they want to
be effective next year.
Speaker 1 (30:32):
Johnson, They've got some work to do, folks. I don't believe,
by the way, any of the craps you just said.
I think Donald Trump leaned in to cut fifteen hundred
pages of a sixteen hundred plus page bill, and that's
what he leaned in on. Did he get everything he
wanted to know? Our Democrats in control of the Senate? Yes,
is there a slim majority in the House? Yes? Was
(30:53):
this going to be tough to do right before people
are leaving and many people are leaving Congress forever that
lost re election because they're going to stick it to Trump,
including some Republicans at loss. Yes. Do I believe in
this doom and gloom the way that they're talking about it.
I do not. I do not at all. And then
listen to this part where they're like, ah, well, now
we got it. We got a problem with Speaker Johnson.
Speaker 5 (31:14):
That speaker of Genuary.
Speaker 3 (31:15):
There it's the million dollar question right now, john I
will say people have underestimated Johnson quite a bit in
the past year, and oftentimes he's sort of you know
outlasts his naysayers here, but the situation is different. I mean,
I've talked to a lot of Trump folks over the
past couple of days, and Trump has really soured on him.
It feels like something in this relationship has really broken.
Speaker 9 (31:37):
He needs Trump to get reelected.
Speaker 3 (31:39):
Absolutely, he needs Trump. And not only does he need
Trump's endorsement, He's going to need President Trump to lean
in to actually get that gavel. And right now I'm
hearing from people that there's a real question about whether
Trump's going to lift a finger for him to do this.
I think the question Trump has to ask himself is
is ousting Johnson worth potentially upending his agenda at the
beginning of the year and creating this sort of stall
(32:01):
in momentum. I mean, look, we remember the speakership chaos.
Speaker 1 (32:05):
When McCarthy, of course Macarthia.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
A whole month went by when we had no idea
who was leaving the conference. Right now, this speakership vote
is set for January third. President Trump, his victory is
set to be certified on January sixth. I was talking
to someone last night, pretty high up and Republican on
the Hill, who was saying that without a speaker, you
can't certify his election. So does he really want to
do this? Does he want to stall his agenda? But
(32:28):
perhaps he feels like it's worth it. I guess time
will tell, all right, Rachel bag.
Speaker 1 (32:32):
By the way, I want to tell you multiple reasons
why I disagree with the analysis that I just played
for you. I don't believe that their rift is anything
close to what they're trying to do on TV, which
is to trying to start a civil war. I believe
that Speaker Johnson and Donald Trump have a good working relationship.
They have done multiple events together recently. He's been down
(32:56):
at mar Lago recently. Multiple times, they had multileultiple events
together on the campaign trail. They helped raise money to
get others elected, Republicans elected, and they worked really well
getting Donald Trump into tight races to make sure that
they were able to win a Senate majority, as thin
as it may be a House majority, I should say,
(33:16):
as soon as it may be. I don't believe this
idea that Speaker Johnson is in serious trouble. In fact,
I would argue that Donald Trump is smart enough right
now to say, hey, I need to move forward with
an agenda with a conservative and Speaker Johnson is the
best conservative that could get elected right now. What they're
(33:37):
hoping is that this is a party in chaos. Headline
today Johnson Carl Congress chaos right. This is how they
spread it to the country. This is how they try
to start a civil war. Listen.
Speaker 9 (33:54):
If you were watching Congress this week, you might have
thought for a moment that Donald Trump is already president.
Along with his most high profile and wealthiest advisor, Trump
upended a bipartisan spending deal that had been months in
the making. But the power of a president elect, just
like the power of a president, only goes so far.
(34:14):
And while Trump's hold on the Republican Party is not
in doubt, we saw that his power to get Congress
to do what he wants has its limits. As Congress
veered towards a shutdown, Trump made only one non negotiable demand.
He said that the bill to keep the government open
must also increase or abolish the so called debt cealing
(34:35):
that's the amount the federal government can.
Speaker 5 (34:37):
Borrow to pay its bills.
Speaker 9 (34:39):
Without this, Trump said on social media, we should never
make a deal. And this wasn't just advice. It came
with a warning that he might campaign against Republicans who
dared to defy him. Trump declaring any Republican that would
be so stupid as to do this should and will
be primaried with that. Thirty eight Republicans defied their president's elect.
(35:04):
They were either unworried about his warning or simply didn't
take it seriously.
Speaker 1 (35:09):
And in the end, by the way, or it was
Republicans that were leaving office. Notice how they don't tell
you that part of the story. There are members of
Congress that are not coming back that voted on this.
It would be nice if they ran out actually honest
enough to tell you that. They haven't told you that.
And the reason why it's very clear they don't want
you to know that. But remember this is all about
(35:31):
doom and gloom, and I'm warning you the propaganda is
full speed ahead right now. Keep listening to part two
of this propaganda.
Speaker 9 (35:40):
One hundred and seventy Republicans, along with almost all of
the Democrats, approved a bill to temporarily fund the government
without raising the dead sealing, again defying Trump's demand. Trump
had very good reason to insist on raising or eliminating
the dead sealing. The government is on pace to hit
the limit on how much it can borrow next spring,
(36:03):
and if it is not raised, the government faces default
with dire consequences for the economy and for the Trump agenda.
Speaker 5 (36:11):
This week proved he won't.
Speaker 9 (36:13):
Be able to count on Republicans alone to avert that disaster.
One casualty of this shutdown mess maybe the Speaker of
the House, Mike Johnson. He tried to do Trump's bidding
and he failed, hurting his standing with the President elect
and with at least some of his Republican colleagues. Will
he be re elected as Speaker when Congress reconvenes on
(36:36):
January third, with a minuscule Republican majority, that could take
a minor miracle. On the show this morning, we'll hear from.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
A Republican again. That is the lead in. You just
noticed in that lead in there was not a single
thing about a massive cut in the number of pages.
That is the beginning of ABC's this week when they're
running their biggest show of the week and they start
with Congress chaos. Chaos, by the way, you could argue
(37:07):
to be a government shutdown which we didn't have. Chaos
would be passing a bill that no one had read
which didn't happen. Chaos would be a bill filled with
pork so big that it was seventeen sixteen hundred pages
that didn't happen. We cut fifteen hundred pages from a bill.
Does that sound like chaos? Doesn't sound like chaos to me.
(37:32):
We have a Speaker who had a very tight majority
and got a deal done to avert a government shutdown,
which they would have definitely blamed on Donald Trump. That
didn't happen either. We have a debt ceiling vote that's
going to come up, no doubt about it. But the
reality is they've got now time to think about how
they're going to do it, and how they're gonna do
(37:52):
it in the best way possible. I will go back
to what I said at the beginning. I don't believe
that Speaker Johnson has a mass of soured relationship with
Donald Trump right now. I think that's a media telling
a lie. I wanted to start a civil war. I
believe that this was a great scenario, a great scenario
that what just took place, and I'm glad that it
(38:13):
took place the way that it did. I'm glad we
got rid of fifteen hundred pages. This was what I
would refer to as a very clear victory for Donald Trump.
And yet the media doesn't mention the number of pages cut,
and they still tell you it's a terrible day in America.
You need to remember they lie to you on purpose
for a reason. They lie to you on purpose because
(38:33):
they want you to hate Trump, and they want you
to hate Speaker Johnson, and they want you to think
they can't govern, and they want you to be angry.
Don't take the bait. Enjoy knowing that we just had
a victory of cutting government waste and spending. Don't forget
Share this podcast with your family and friends on social media.
(38:56):
Please write us a five star review and I will
see you back here tomorrow.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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