Latest / The Ben Ferguson Podcast / Explosive Conclusion to the Speaker Fight - What It All Means

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Explosive Conclusion to the Speaker Fight - What It All Means · The Ben Ferguson Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome it as a verdict. With Senator Ted Cruz, Ben
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Ferguson with you. It is a moment that finally happened.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Many of you were asleep, but we have a new
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy. And here's what it
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: sounded like. Do you solemnly swear that you will support
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: foreign and domestic, That you will bear true faith and
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: allegiance to the same, That you take this obligation freely,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: without intimental reservation or purpose of evasion, And that you
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: on which you're about to enter. So help your God, Yes,
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I do. Congratulations and God's speed. That was it happened
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: late in that way, I should say, technically early in
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: the morning. Senator, your prediction on this podcast was spot on.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: You said you thought they would get a deal done
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: on Friday night. It happened Friday night in this Saturday morning.
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Pretty spot on. Congratulations for that prediction. Well, I will
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: say when we talked about this on Wednesday morning's pod,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: what you and I predicted together. I said that I
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: thought the most likely outcome was that Kevin McCarthy would
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: cut a deal with the holdouts, and in particular that
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: he would cut a deal with Chip Roy. That Chip
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Roy really was the leader of the twenty And the
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: reason I thought that is because Chip was focused, I
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: think quite rightly on changes to the rules, changes to
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: how the House conducts business. On substance, some of the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: people involved in this leadership battle, I think had had
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: real personal animosity to Kevin McCarthy. I think Chip, to
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: his credit, was not motivated by that. He was motivated
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: by changing the broken way that Washington operates. And what
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: you and I talked about Wednesday morning on this podcast
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: is I thought the most likely outcome was Kevin and
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: Chip would reach a deal. He would make some significant concessions,
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and those concessions would be a Nathan McCarthy would be elected.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Ultimately at about one in the morning, uh, late last night.
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: That's exactly what happened. It took It took a few
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: more hours than we had predicted, but not much. It
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: was about about the same time period. And I will
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: say what Chip and the other dissenters accomplished was a
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: really big deal. There was a lot of drama because
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: there was a vote at eleven PM where I think
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: McCarthy and leadership thought they had the votes, and they
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: ended up falling just short because many of the dissenters
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: dropped off, but there remained a handful who didn't and
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: it and it led to it led to some interesting drama.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: It led to and and in particular, you also had
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: during the day too, votes that were missing. One Wesley Hunt,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: a new congressman from Houston, actually my congressman, who had
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: to fly back to Houston because his wife had just
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: delivered a baby, his son who was born prematurely and
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: and and they were having to care for his son.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: He flew back to Houston to be with them and
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: then turned around and was there for the late night vote.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: His vote was needed at the end, and he was
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: there for the late night vote. But it it got
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: a little wild and woolley and including uh. At one
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: point Mike Rogers, a Republican from Alabama YEA, had to
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: be physically restrained from from taking a swing and and
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: and coming after Matt Yates that that was I'm not
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: sure I've seen the beginnings of an actual bar fight
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: on the floor of the House, but it it it
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: came pretty close. I was wondering if that was a
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: new COVID certified mask for Congress, right the hand over
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: the face and restraining. I'm like, maybe that count as
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: a new COVID mask. But at the end of the day,
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: all of the histrionics about oh, this is terrible, this
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: is the end of the republic. Now, the Democrats were,
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: of course crowing. You would expect them to crow. That's
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: what they're going to do regardless. The media went on
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: and on. But I've got to say the agreements that
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: they ended up getting were significant. And let me throw
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: a caveat that the Rules Package has not yet been
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: voted on, that the plan is to vote on that
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: on Monday, and so the devil is always in the details,
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: and it could you know, this is at this point
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: what's been publicly reported. But among other things that have
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: publicly been reported, here are elements of the deal that
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: have been reported in the press. Number one, that the
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: rules package ends proxy voting, which means members of the
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: House actually have to show up and do their damn jobs.
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: One of the bizarre things Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats did,
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: and the name of COVID is allowed House members to
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: be sitting on the beach thousands of miles away and
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: cast votes by proxy. That was always nuts. I believe
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: it's unconstitutional. I tell you, the Senate never did it.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Schumer and the Senate never did it. If you're not
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: in the Senate, you don't vote. You have to be
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: on the floor of the Senate. In fact, the way
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: the Senate votes is so old school. You literally are
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: standing on the floor of the Senate and the clerk
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: calls out your name, mister Ferguson, and you say I
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: or nay, and they write it down with a pencil
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: on a little on a long, skinny card that has
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: the names of all one hundred senators on it. Yeah,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: voting that way, I think is just there's so much
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: history in it. I was at one time when I
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: was thirteen years old. Newt Gingrich allowed me to go
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: down the flour of the House with Bob Dornan, and
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: Bob let me hit after he put his key, you know,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: his card in hit the green button on a vote
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: with him when I was thirteen. I'll never forget for
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: the rest of my life. I love the old school
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: side of that and having people be present. I also
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: think it builds camaraderie and conversation over a legislation. And
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: let's go through some of what's in play here. But
• 6:07
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• 7:37
  Speaker 1: Now there's this proxy voting ended. Also remote committee hearings ended,
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: So if you want to have a hearing, get your
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: butt to the hearing. That that was important. But but
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: they're also a whole series of additional uh agreements that
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: are apparently in the rules package, although as I said,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: the devil's in the detail. One is the single purpose
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: rule the House for a long time one real source
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: of mischief is cramming a gazillion things into a rule
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: into a rule rather than just have it focus on
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: a single purpose. That's a good thing. Related to that
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: is the Germanus Protocol, which is again a requirement that
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: if things are added to a bill that they be
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: germane essentially they'd be relevant to the bill. That you
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: can't just add completely unrelated matters to a pending bill.
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: There's another element that is apparently part of it, and
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: it's a return of what's called the Holman rule, which
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: allows reducing spending at agencies and reorganizing agencies. It's an
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: appropriation rule the House has had that enables them to
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: get into the budget of executive agencies. That's significant. Another
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: element is the seventy two hour rule that delays anything
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: from moving forward seventy two hours that you have time
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: to actually read the damn bill before you vote on it.
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: That's significant. There is an agreement to have a church
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: style committee to investigate weaponization of organizations like the FBI
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: and the DOJ and Ben You and I have been
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: calling for that for a long time. As you know,
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: my last book, Justice Corrupted, How the Left has weaponized
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: our legal system is entirely about the abuse of power
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: at the DOJ and the FBI and the CIA. I
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: think we very much need a serious church style committee
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: investigating it, and that's part of the agreement. And then
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: the two that were the biggest deals that were the biggest,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: the most hotly contested, were having a motion to vacate
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the chair that one member could bring and that means
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: any individual member at any time can go down and
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: move to vacate the chair, and you have to have
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: two utter eighteen people vote for McCarthy to stay speaker
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: that apparently is in there. And then the final one
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: that is apparently in there is seats for conservatives on
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the Rules Committee, on an other committees. And that's in
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: order to give real fiscal conservatives leverage to fight against
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: another bad omnibus bill, another one point seven trillion dollar
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: monstrosity that just got rammed through, putting people in positions
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: on committees that they can prevent that from happening. All
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: of those are a huge, huge deal. At the outset,
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: the naysayers said Conservatives couldn't get any of these, and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I got to say, look, it's a testament to my
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: friendship Roy, it's a testament to the other conservatives who
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: were standing up and behaving in a principled manner. And
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: at the end of the day, it's a testament to
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: Kevin McCarthy for reaching an agreement that I think is
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: a reasonable, a positive agreement, agreement that's good for the
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: House and is going to give more power to Republicans,
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: more power to conservatives, more leverage to the House to
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: stand up to Chuck Schumer and to stand up to
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Joe Biden. There was a question that was asked of
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: me and it was one that I wanted to ask
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: to use. I said, was this worth it? And I
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: said yes, and they said wine. I said, just the
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: transparency will save the American taxpayers countless dollars. How much
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: money do you think the American people? Are we in
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the billions of dollars that can be saved just because
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: of the way these rules changes and the transparency of
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: not being able to cram so much into bill with
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: all of this different pork. You know, I'm sorry to
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: tell you you're off by an order magnitude it We're
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: in the billions of dollars. Before Monday morning, we are
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: likely in the trillions of dollars. Wow, this is a
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: big deal. If conservatives have more leverage to force real
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: fiscal restraint to stop the out of control spending that
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: is bankrupting the country, that is driving record inflation, that
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: is put in crushing debt to China on this country,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: that's a big deal. And in the last couple of years,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: the federal government has spent more time than in the
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: entire history of the universe. And the only way it's
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: going to stop is if Republicans have a backbone to
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: stand and fight to make it stop. This battle this
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: week significantly enhance the tools for fiscal conservatives to be
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: able to stop the radical abuses of the last two years.
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: Talk about tribalism for a moment. The House has a
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: lot more members than the Senate does. In the Senate,
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: I think you guys get to know each other a
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: lot faster. You get to work with each other across
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: party lines. In the House, it's so much bigger, and
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: there's different fractions within the Democratic Party, the Squad for example,
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: AOC and kind of her group. You have the Freedom Caucus,
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: and you've had the Tea Party groups, and you've had
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: so many different fractions. I actually think one of the
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: biggest blessings into sky is it's going to come out
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: of this week and these fifteen votes is there were
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: a lot of walls and maybe misconceptions about individuals who
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: had conversations they would have never had, interactions they would
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: have never had, and now moving forward, there may be
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: a much better line of communication between people because we
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: I mean, you were watching it like I was. It
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: was really interesting to see people that you would assume
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: would never be speaking to each other, that we're talking
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: to each other intently. Vote after vote after vote. That
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: may be a big blessing. Well, I think it is,
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: and I think it's also a blessing to have leadership
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: that is responsive to the members. Now, listen, Kevin McCarthy's
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: never been speakers, so we'll see what kind of tenure
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: he has a speaker. You know, I've told you before
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: I like Kevin personally. He and I have a good relationship.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: But there certainly had been speakers in the past who
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: were autocratic, who were dictators, who just laid out, this
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: is what we're gonna do. Shut up at a bay
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: Nancy Pelosi does that. John Bayner did that. It was
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: one of the things that caused him to be driven
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: from the speakership is his members got tired of being
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: mistreated and him viewing it is as essentially his reign
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: rather than reflecting the views of the conference. I think
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: this process is likely to have made Speaker McCarthy significantly
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: more responsive to the views and concerns of the conference.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: And I think that's healthy. I think that's what leadership
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: should do. You're right, The House and Senator very different. Look,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: the House has four hundred and thirty five members right now,
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: it has four hundred and thirty four because one member
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: just recently passed away, a Democrat from Virginia. You know,
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: you have about two hundred in each party. You compare
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: that to the Senate, and the Senate we've got forty
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: nine Republicans. Forty nine is not that much. I mean,
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: we have lunch together. The forty nine of us have
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: lunched together every Tuesday, every Wednesday, every Thursday. We know
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: each other really well. I mean, you forty nine people,
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: you build relationships, and senators stay there sometimes longer than
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: you know grant monuments in Washington. So when you've been
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: working with people for years and then for decades and
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: it's a small group, those interpersonal relationships can be one
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: of the real keys to getting things accomplished. One of
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: the one of the reasons why I win a lot
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: of the battles that I'm fighting in the Senate is
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: at this point, my colleagues know that I don't bluff,
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: that I don't engage in fights based on personalities. I
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: don't make it personal, but I focus on substance. I say,
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: if you want my vote, I need X. If I
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: don't get X, my vote is now. If I get X,
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: my vote is why One of the reasons. I'm really
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: proud of the job Chipped it is. That's exactly how
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: he handled negotiating it. He didn't get emotionally, didn't get angry.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: He said, if you want my vote, here's what I need.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: At the outset, people said, oh, that's ridiculous. You'll never
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: get concessions like that. And at the end of the day,
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: math is math, and it turned out they needed his vote,
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: and getting Chips vote was the critical piece to bringing
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: the rest of the group on board and getting McCarthy
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: the votes. That responsiveness is important, and you're right, the
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: relationships between the members, you know, you gotta remember there's
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: also always a lot of turnover in the House. The
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: House today is a very different house that it was
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: five years ago. It's a very different house that it
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: was ten years ago. They're just it's a body that
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: has significantly more churn. So some of these folks are
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: brand new. You had three representative elects who'd never been
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: congressmen were literally just elected and they finally got sworn
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: in last night, who were part of the rebels forcing
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: the rule change that will impact the job they do
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: go forward. If you're part of that at the outset,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: but but the relationships between and across different factions hopefully
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: will be positive. Now, there maybe some hurt feelings. People
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: were really ratcheted up and pissed off, And so I'm
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: not being pollyannish and suggesting it'll all be loves and kisses.
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: But I do think this process it was transparent, it
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: was democratic, and at the end of the day, it
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: substantially increased the tools to stop the reckless spending that
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: has fueled the record inflation and that has bankrupted the country.
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: I think that is a really good thing. Grabbing agenda
• 17:43
  Speaker 1: items that can bring the Republican Party together early on.
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: I think it's going to be key to Kevin McCarthy's success.
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: He announced last night at one twenty am Eastern that
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: the first piece of business the House is going to
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: bring up is gonna be something that's very important to you.
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: You helped expose this. You talked about how big of
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: a threat this was to the American people. It deals
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: with the IRS Agency eighty seven thousand, and here's what
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: the Speaker elects at last night, one twenty am. I
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: know the night is late, but when we come back,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: our very first bill really peel the funding for eighty
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: seven thousand, UI, I mean center, if you want to
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: get everybody to get together real quick. This was a
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: pretty brilliant move by him to say that. It's saying,
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: I know it's late, I know you're tired, but when
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: we come back Monday, get ready. And that was a
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: standing ovation you just heard. Yeah, No, that was exactly
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: the right thing to do. It was very smart, it
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: was very savvy. As you know. It's something that I've
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: been calling on the House to do as their first bill.
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: I said it on the trail campaigning for a lot
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: of these guys standing next to you in a number
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: of instances, saying, when we went a majority in the House,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: the very first bill the House should take up is
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: repealing the funding for the eighty seven thousand new I
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: R S agents. I'm glad Kevin agreed with what I
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: and others had called for. That's a strong unifying message.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: It draws a clear contrast with the Democrats. I think
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: that's good. I will point out, so you and I
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: both stayed up till the whole thing was over. We
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: were watching it live. We watched the votes, the final votes,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: everyone coming in, all the drama, everyone holding their breath,
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: everyone knowing how are the last few holdouts going to vote?
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: Are they going to vote for McCarthy? Are they going
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: to vote present? Are they going to vote for someone else?
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, there were no
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: votes for someone else in the last ballot. There were
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: a handful that voted present but allowed McCarthy to get in.
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: After that, you had speeches, you had a pause, and
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: then you had speeches, and you had a speech from
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: Akeem Jeffreys and then a speech from Kevin McCarthy. And
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: and I will say, for people that didn't watch Hakeem
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: Jeffreys speech last night, it was consequential. I don't know
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: how Keem Jeffries. I have not not dealt with him. Um,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: I haven't really seen him give a speech until last night.
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: Watching it. His tone, his rhythm, his speaking pattern, his
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: way of communicating is eerily reminiscent of Barack Obama. It
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: is I would think the same thing as I was
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: watching him, going wow, this is Barack Obama two point zero. Um.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: You know, someone on Twitter tweeted out if Barack Obama
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: and Martin Luther King had a son, he'd be a
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: Keem Jeffries. Now that that may be a bit much.
• 20:50
  Speaker 1: I actually put doctor King in a whole different class.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: But Barack Obama is a very talented communicator and it
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: led to eight years in the White House as a
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: result of it. There were more than a few Democrats.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: There are more than a few Democrats in the Democratic
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: presidential field who watched that speech last night and said,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: oh crap, that that was. That speech last night reminded
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: me of Obama's speech at the Democratic National Committee where
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: he talked about there there are not red states and
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: blue states. We are the United States of America. The
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: messages and themes that he was echoing were really powerful,
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: and he also he gave a long speech. He gave
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: a speech to Democrats that was, look at all the
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: great things we did destroying our country the last two years,
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: and if you're a radical social issue would have been
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: cheering like crazy. But he gave a speech saying we're
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: great and the guys that are taking over they suck.
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: I mean, it was it was. It was not gracious,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: given that he was literally introducing Kevin McCarthy and handing
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: the gabble to him. There was no graciousness whatsoever. It
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: was a partisan speech. But what made it dangerous is
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: it was a partisan speech that was very eloquent and
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: and and basic planned. I mean they planned that. Oh yeah, no, no,
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: that that was a written speech. He was not talking
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: off the cuff, and and basically he hijacked the night.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: It was impressive. You know, McCarthy wasn't happy, but there's
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: not really much you can do. You can't walk up
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: and shut him up. But Jeffreys basically hijack the night. Now,
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: it was late enough at night. I don't know how
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: many people listened to it, but there were millions of
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: people across the country that looked at this guy and said,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: this guy is a force to be reckoned with. When
• 22:55
  Speaker 1: when you look at moving forward now next week, what
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: advice do you have for these new members as they
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: try to, you know, get their rhythm, get their feet
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: under them. I mean the way that they got baptism
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: by fire in this last week. Yeah, they're going to
• 23:14
  Speaker 1: take a lot from that. But now we're going to
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: the regular order and kind of a normal cycle and
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: feel here. What advice do you have to new members
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: of Congress? What do you wish somebody would have said
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: to you when you were first elected? If you could
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: go back and do it all over again. Well, the
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: advice that I consistently give to new members, either in
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: the House or the Senate, is really simple. Do what
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: you said you would do, whatever you promise the voters
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: on the trail to do, follow through on that commitment.
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: And a component of that is don't just listen blindly
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: to leadership. You don't work in the House for Kevin McCarthy.
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: I don't work in the Senate for Mitch McConnell. Your
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: boss is the men and women who elected you. My
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: boss are the thirty million Texans. Ben, you're my boss.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: You're a Texan. I work for you. And so new
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: members sometimes can get confused and think leadership, Oh, I'm
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: supposed to follow orders from leadership. No follow orders from
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: the men and women who elected you, and do in
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: January what you said you would do in October. And
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: any member that does that it's a radical thing that
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: doesn't happen very often. I do think this fight this
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: week helped. I'll be talking with a lot of these
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: House members. I very deliberately did not talk to the
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: House members when this was happening. I consciously many of
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: the people engage in this fight are close friends of mine.
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: I decided, Okay, I'm gonna stay out of this. I'm
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: gonna let them work out their own leadership battles. These
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: are big boys and girls. They can figure it out themselves.
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: But I will to all of them in the coming days.
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: And you know, I think the focus needs to be
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: very much on results, on substance. How can we deliver
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: for the American people? How can we fight to change
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: the corrupt culture of Washington. These rules changes are a
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: big step in that direction. By the way, there was
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: one other concession that I didn't mention, but it was
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: publicly reported, which is McCarthy saying that he's going to
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: stay out of Republican primaries and stop spending money trying
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: to defeat conservatives and Republican primaries. If if McCarthy superPAC
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: follows through on that, that's a big deal to all
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: of those concessions were real and significant changes in how
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: the House conducts itself. How significant is that it it
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: when you look at the amount of money that McCarthy
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: Superpack could come in and spend in a primary. In
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: multiple primaries, McCarthy Superpack spent millions of dollars supporting one
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Republican attacking another Republican. In almost every circumstance, when given
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: a choice between a moderate and conservative, McCarthy's superpack would
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: put the money behind the moderate and would attack the conservative.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: And that was nationally tens of millions of dollars we're
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: spent doing that. At least publicly, they've made a commitment
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: they're not going to do that again. That will matter
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: for this next cycle because we'll have contested primaries, and
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: if McCarthy's pack is not trying to put a thumb
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: on the scale, that means conservatives are going to be
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: have a better chance of prevailing on the merits in
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: the primaries. When you look at this overall fight, what
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: is your biggest takeaway as we move forward into this
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: new Congress from this When you say, all right, this
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: is the best thing, this may be the worst thing,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: and this is my biggest you know, throw it up
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: in the air and I'm not sure what's going to
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: happen moment. My biggest thing is smart, principled fights matter.
• 27:08
  Speaker 1: That you should engage in real, serious, meaningful fights, not
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: show fights, but fights where you have a plan, where
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: you have a strategy, and where you have a real
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: outcome That can be delivered. So I'll tell you last
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: night at eleven twenty three pm that's Texas time, so
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: it's twelve twenty three pm DC time. It was when
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: the final vote was ongoing. Was the first time I
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: reached out to Chip as the final vote was happening.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I'll tell you what I texted Chip last night. I
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: texted Chip, Chip, what you've accomplished this week is a
• 27:52
  Speaker 1: big damn deal. You handled yourself with grace, skill, calm, resolve,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: savvy and principle. I'm proud of you, my friend, as
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: is the state of Texas. Ted. That's a message that
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: was very heartfelt, but as I said, I didn't want
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: to convey anything like that until everything was said and
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: done and it was over and now I hope for
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: a world of success for the House Republican majority. They're
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: the one lever point we have. I hope Kevin McCarthy
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: speakership is the most successful speakership in history, and that
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: these rule changes firm up his resolve to fight smart, principled,
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: consequential battles. If we do that in the House, we'll
• 28:44
  Speaker 1: be doing our job. And that, by the way, not
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: only help save the Republic. Right now, but fighting smart, principled,
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: consequential battles will also help Republicans dramatically to win in
• 28:56
  Speaker 1: twenty four, to have a much bigger majority in the House,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: to win in the Senate, and to win the White House.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: If we stand and fight and deliver, the voters reward
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: that by showing up and voting, and so I think
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: this week was a big step in the right direction.
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: It's gonna be a lot of fun to watch what
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: this House is able to do now and how much
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: money that we're going to save the American people just
• 29:23
  Speaker 1: by these rules changes that were worth fighting over. You
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: were right when you said it, this was gonna get
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: figured out. This is worth it, This battle was going
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: to be worth it, and it was gonna be figured out.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of good that's going to
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: come from this new relationships built in the House. And
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: there's a lot of other big fights they're gonna be happening.
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: Immigration is going to be one of those. Border security,
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: the President getting involved on this issue. We're going to
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: talk about that Monday, his trip to the border. So
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: make sure you hit that subscribe button, the auto download
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: button wherever you're listening to this podcast. Make sure you right.
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: It's a five star review center. It was fun to watch,
• 29:59
  Speaker 1: and it's gonna be really fun to see what Republicans
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: get moving forward, and we'll see every one of you
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: back here on Monday morning.