← The Michael Knowles Show
The Michael Knowles Show
EXCLUSIVE: Speaker Johnson on Iran War, Midterms, SAVE AMERICA Act with Michael Knowles
00:15:35
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- [00:01]
House Republican Leader
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House Republican Leader
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House Republican Leader
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Podcast Host
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Podcast Host
Mr. Speaker, thank you for taking the time.
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House Republican Leader
Thanks for being here. Appreciate it.
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Podcast Host
So there are 237 days till the midterms, but who's counting? Typically, in an off year after a presidential election, especially if you win really big like we did last time, you face daunting odds.
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House Republican Leader
Right?
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Podcast Host
The poll numbers seem to be getting worse. There seems to be a chasm between political reality, on the economy, on foreign policy, and everything in between, and perception. Major chasm, widening chasm. How do we fix that in 237
- [01:31]
House Republican Leader
days with a big dose of reality and with a clear message. And we're working on both of those things. The first ingredient is to have great candidates. And we recruited extraordinary people to go flip blue seeds to red this cycle. And of course, our incumbents and all those who've been part of the big successes of the last year and a half, almost as we go into the election cycle, are going to be out talking about their record of success. It truly is promises made and promises kept. I've made the case that the first year of the Trump administration was arguably the most productive and successful in at least the modern era. I think one of the top five in the history of Congress, and I'm a student of all this because of all the substance and the big things that we passed and got it signed into law. Now there is an incredible media bias, as you know, and the mainstream media, the legacy media, every day literally repeats almost verbatim the talking points of Chuck Schumer and the Democrats, as crazy as they are, and they Try to censor and silence our viewpoint in various ways, as you know. And so we've got to break through that and get the reality to the people. So it will be a lot of direct candidate to constituent discussion. They're going to be doing the candidate forums and the town halls and all that to go out and share our message. We gathered here at this work session, this conference over the last couple days was to talk about how to do that effectively. So look, I'm very bullish about the midterms. I'm absolutely convinced we are going to win the midterms and grow the majority. It will defy the historic trend. It's only twice in the last 90 years that a sitting president has picked up seats for his party in that first two year cycle. But I can give you a very boring 90 minute slideshow for all the reasons we're going to win. But it boils down to a record of success. Great candidates. We have a fundraising advantage right now because the stakes are so high. Republicans over Democrats first time in 10 years. Democrats are at, at historic lows and approval rating. They have no leadership, no message, no vision for where they're going. Their whole platform is they hate Donald Trump. Well, good luck with that. That's not exactly something to sell to constituents. And then we're going into a cycle where the President of the United States, the first midterm in history or a second term president who can't be on the ballot again is running like he's on the ballot himself. It's going to make a big difference, big turnout difference for us. I think in the end, as the economy begins to continues to improve, all of our policies go into effect. I think people are going to feel better about that right about the time they go in to vote.
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Podcast Host
Well, the good news I saw on the polls on the economy is that voters don't trust the Democrats on it. But the bad news I saw is they don't trust the Republicans either. And some of the numbers have moved in a negative direction from January to today. Now I wonder how much of that has to do with the recent diversion into Iran oil jumping. One hour it's $115 a barrel, next hour it's $85 a barrel. How significant will the Iran war be looking at the midterms?
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House Republican Leader
It will be wrapped up soon. And you know, I talked to the president multiple times a day and he says the same thing privately, that he's staying publicly. This is a very limited scope, mission and objective. We have virtually accomplished the mission entirely Incredibly quickly. That was by design, just as calibrated as is the improvements in the economy. Scott Besant, Treasury Secretary, said a few weeks ago. He said 2025 was sort of like setting the table and the feast and the banquet and the economy is going to be in 2026. The big beautiful bill that work in Vietnamese tax cut. All of our legislation was done and signed into law by last summer. Remember, triumphantly, we did it on July 4th with B2s flying over the White House. That was by design because we knew that it had to all be implemented and take effect as we went into the midterm cycle to get relief to the people as soon as possible. That is exactly what's going to happen right now. People are getting bigger refunds for their taxes because we changed the tax code and the law in their favor. They're getting bigger paychecks and that will continue. So the little blip on the screen right now with Iran and oil prices will be very temporary and quick. I mean, this morning Doug Burgum, Interior Secretary, is out explaining what will happen quickly to oil prices. It's all about supply and demand. And long term, we're going to be much better off with some stability in Iran instead of an avowed enemy of the United States and Israel trying to develop nuclear weapons to wipe us off the face of the earth. This is going to be a good thing. So this will be a blip. People will have short memories. And when their cost of living goes down, which is what we're fiercely devoted to, we have done and we'll continue to do that this year, they're going to be feeling much better about this and it's going to be reflected in the outcome of the election.
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Podcast Host
You don't need to persuade me that the potential upside in Iran is very serious. I mean, from the perspective of grand strategy, I totally get it. And I don't think any other podcasters are saying that because they're all opposed to it. And this is one of my fears, looking ahead to the midterms is the war is unpopular. It seems to be especially unpopular with the right wing podcasters, with the influencers, I don't know, with the new media. And yet one can see all of that potential upside. So then my question is heading in what does unity look like? There is complete division among the meta political influencer new media set. There seems to be substantially more unity among the Republicans who are actually in elected office, with some exceptions, maybe your colleague Mr. Massie and others. How does unity of the party look?
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House Republican Leader
We'll have to pull everybody together going into the election. We've done that on Capitol Hill. I mean, we have the smallest margin in U.S. history. I have a one vote margin, which means I have to get unanimity because the, the aforementioned colleague of mine votes no almost every day. So we've worked on that. And you know, we have a broad spectrum of opinion inside the House Republican Conference. There's seven different major caucuses just along that conservative spectrum in there. And I've got to get them all together. The thing that binds us together is adherence to our core principles. And that's what we try to keep focus of all the time. I call them the seven core principles of American conservatism. I never ask colleague to violate core principles. We have to give up on our preferences sometimes because it's a deliberative body with hundreds of members. Right. You're never going to get 100% of what you want. But our objective every day is to move the product to the most conservative place that we can to gather the votes to pass it into law and get it to the President's desk. We've been wildly successful with that. Over 500 pieces of legislation so far this Congress, 100 of its executive orders, codified CRAs, the congressional review Acts. We clawed back a record number of crazy regulations from the previous administration under Biden. All that would not have been possible if we had not gotten everyone together around those core principles. Individual freedom, limited government, the rule of law, peace through strength, fiscal responsibility, free markets, human dignity. Every day we're trying to move the ball further towards those objectives, keep the party anchored to those things and move the country forward. And the results of that is good policy, that's good for the people. And I think it gets rewarded at the ballot box. And it will have a way, I think, of bringing everybody together. We are not in the nation building business. We are not interventionalists. We are not out trying to be the world's policeman. No one in our party believes that even the people that they call neocons are coming back to reality. Because of our financial situation, we don't have the ability to do those things, even if someone wanted to. The Iran situation was real. I was in the. I'm in the Gang of Eight. I got all the classified briefings from Marco and from John Ratcliffe, CIA Director, and from Hegseth and the President himself. The intel said that we were in imminent danger of an attack on our personnel, our service members, our civilians, our installations in that region. That Iran was going to have a Barrage of missiles. This is all the unclassified part. Now it's all been reported.
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Podcast Host
This would be in response to the Israeli attack, which was going to happen
- [09:03]
House Republican Leader
whether we wanted it or not, which was imminent because it was an existential threat for them. And they saw their avowed enemy, who said they wanted to wipe Israel off the map at a moment, vulnerability. And they are producing new ballistic missiles in Iran at a rate of about 700amonth, which is far outpacing what our regional allies there could keep up with. And they were, of course, pursuing their nuclear ambitions again. And so Israel was going to act unilaterally. It's their right as a nation to do it. And there would be an immediate cause and effect. And we had to act up first to prevent mass casualties on our side. Commander in chief had a tough decision. It's not a declaration of war. It's a defensive, limited mission. I think that mission's getting accomplished and the world's going to be better off because of it.
- [09:46]
Podcast Host
You know, some of the arguments that I've heard, including from Capitol Hill, that we need a formal declaration of war, obviously, are nonsense. You can see that in the War Powers Act. Obama took, what, seven months on Libya or something like that, and not a
- [09:58]
House Republican Leader
single Democrat said a word about it.
- [09:59]
Podcast Host
Of course, Biden was shooting the Houthis for a year without a declaration of. So I totally buy that. If President Trump's timeline is legit, as you seem to think it is, five weeks, then I could see that not really mattering into the midterms. Something that I could see mattering, perhaps even more, though, is you could say, look, we've done our part in the House and we've backed up the president's agenda. Promises made, promises kept. But your colleague in the upper chamber seems to be really struggling even to bring a basic piece of legislation, the SAVE act for a vote. Voter ID, widely popular. What, 80% popularity. So are you going to be punished for the Senate's inability to pass basic legislation?
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House Republican Leader
Well, I hope not. We passed the SAVE act twice previous Congress. This Congress. Now we passed the Save America act because now it's voter ID and proof of citizenship together. And then, as you might have noted, the president last few days has added a few more bells and whistles. He calls it the greatest hits. And look, we'll do that again. We'll pass it over there. Leader Thune has a. John has a tough decision on his hands. They are concerned that if they open the talking filibuster, as obvious as that seems to you and me in the Senate, they have archaic rules and they're concerned. Their reading of the rules is Democrats could flood the field with thousands of amendments. There's no germaneness limitation on the. They're going to add any crazy Democrat policy they want. And if they're able to lure a couple of squishy Republicans over there, then we've got a live grenade. The other problem is the clerk, under the rules, is made to read every amendment into the record live. Okay? So if they file 1,400 page amendments, they could tie the Senate floor up for months. That's what they're concerned about now. Desperate times call for desperate measures. You know, I've talked to the President about this and the, and the risks versus the benefits, and he says, let's risk it, go for it. Because you and I know and we all know. And the reason we pass it so vigorously, the Save America act is aptly named. It would save election integrity, which preserves our republic. You can't have a constitutional republic if people don't have faith in the election system. So these are basic requirements. There's 70% issues with Democrats. There's no reason that they shouldn't be able to get 60 votes under regular order over there. But the Democrats have dug in. Why? Because as the President says, the only way and reason you could be against voter ID to vote and citizenship to vote is if you intend to cheat. And you know, they're showing us by their actions, that's what the Democrats are about.
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Podcast Host
Two final questions. But they're basically the same question. People from my class, the podcasters, love to tell Congress what to do, sometimes without much knowledge of how Congress actually works. So what would your message be to the conservative podcasters, influencers, pundits and babbling types? One, and then two. 237 days left. You gotta herd cats. You have the toughest job in Washington, D.C. i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. What do you say to all of your members is the unifying message, the coherent message that breaks through the noise that brings that chasm between perception and reality back together?
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House Republican Leader
Well, you mentioned a widening chasm. There's a widening chasm between the two parties. This is not our father, grandfather's Democratic Party. They're actual Marxists now. They're insurgent, far leftist, and they will destroy the country in quick order if they get in charge again. So we have to evaluate that, and then we've got to articulate that to the people, to the voters, to our constituents. This election is about a Contrast. It's between common sense and crazy. I mean, the president was right in the State of the Union. They're crazy. They are crazy. That's their policies. What they would do to this country is frightening. So we've got to go out, articulate that clearly consistently with conviction and authenticity. And we have the people that, the people that serve in the House battered as we are by fake news by the left and misinformation sometimes on our side, well intended, folks, that there's always more nuance to it. There's always factors behind this. And what I would say to our allies and friends in the conservative movement is now's the time for us to stick together. And if you have questions or something seems awry or there's a big conspiracy theory brewing, there's usually some more facts behind that. And if you would just take the time, take a pause, contact us, let us know, we'll give you all the information. And if we're off, I'm open to course correction every day. But it's been said and written and I think it's true. I know it's true. I'm the most conservative person that has ever held the gavel. I'm a movement conservative, literally came up through the movement. I was the attorney for most of the conservative groups that are leading in the policy arena and everything else. Religious liberty, sanctity of life, all that. I was that guy. And so that's my worldview. That's what I bring to the table. And my objective every day is to move the. The ship of state is to the furthest point we can on the conservative spectrum and to get public policy right. We have a president who's fiercely devoted to fixing America and making America great again. We have America's back, but it will only stay on that trajectory if we all stick together. If you're going to fire, don't do it inside our tent. There's plenty of folks on the other side politically who can take that ammo.
- [14:57]
Podcast Host
I agree with that message entirely, Mr. Speaker. I just wish that other members of the party and the movement would see things the same, same way. In any case, you have much more to do. Speaking of all that herding, cat. So appreciate you taking the time.
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House Republican Leader
Thanks a lot, brother. Great to see you.
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